| Campbell Art Co. |
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| The Campbell Studios as it was called in the beginning was founded by Alfred S. Campbell (English-American, 1840-1912) in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Campbell was an English art photographer, who in 1867 was invited to come to the United States and form a partnership with Napoleon Sarony, under the Sarony name. Sarony had a great desire to gain access to Campbell’s patented photographic process, but within four short years, their business relationship dissolved. Campbell soon decided to move to New Jersey, where he built a state-of-the-art studio that had an on-site photo imaging production facility in Elizabethtown calling it Campbell Studios. Campbell was also a commercial inventor, developing a panorama lens and he also held patents for numerous cameras and paper products. The company specialized in scenic views, postcards, portrait cabinet cards, stereograph cards, and also reproductions of well known artist’s works. They also had a prints division called Campbell Prints, Inc., at 33 West Thirty-Fourth Street, in New York City. By 1900 the company branched out under the direction of William A. Morand in Manhattan on 538 5th Avenue and was called Campbell Studio. Morand had family & social connections in New York and built it into one of the most dominant companies in Manhattan at that time. Morand made a name for himself as one of the leading portraitists in the city. After Morand’s death in 1909, the company took an interest in theatrical photography and furthered their success with the entertainment industry with innovations in the new style of celebrity photography and portraiture. Around that same time, the company was primarily known as the Campbell Art Company. By 1915, they specialized in half-length portrait photos of screen and stage stars in the very fashionable dress styles of the times. They supplied theaters and magazines with their photographs routinely. They were a large force in the entertainment industry, but by 1925 the company had to take a corporate charter for $25,000 and by 1928 the company’s entertainment market had ended. They did manage to continue a commercial portrait studio through the 1930’s. |
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