Last week's excursion to the Sunday Antique Market proved pretty swell as I walked away with a couple of nice little cameras. Since picking up my first Brownie a few weeks ago, I did come across a heck of a lot of information about their variety, value, and availability, so I had a better idea what to look for. Melissa got me a Brownie Six-20 Junior, which has a spring-loaded, operational shutter, and a dusty, albeit clear viewfinder, which is the only non-working part on the Brownie Target Six-20 I picked up recently. It is missing its leather strap, although it doesn't hamper its look too severely. The Brownie Six-20 Junior was first manufactured in 1934, and although called the "junior", it is nearly twice the size of the later Brownie Target Six-20. It has one of the nicest Art Deco designs I've seen on a Brownie - a real statement of the period. It is by all accounts functional, and I did find a manual online.

The first camera pictured above has an interesting story. It is based on the No. 2 Hawkeye premium camera, and was released in 1930 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Eastman Kodak. Kodak produced 557 000 of these cameras, and were given free to any child who was 12 years old in 1930. All a child had to do was go to a Kodak dealer with a prent, show proof of age, and was given a free Brownie, and a roll of 120 film. eloree , who was telling me about this camera before I came across it a few days later, mentioned about 30 000 were distributed in Canada, and I'd like to look into that some more, as most of the mentions I've found online focus on the Brownies given out south of the border. This site has another ad for the camera and an image of the original box. It must have been a significant event for depression-era children, but I've read no mention of the development being included as part of the gift. If that's the case, one can only wonder how many memories faded on the undeveloped film, knowing how cash-strapped most families were at the time. I like having this camera in my collection, knowing some little dude or dudette proudly walked around with it, taking snapshots of family, friends, and the neighborhood.