9. Eastman Rollfilm Holder, c. 1886

Signed: 'EASTMAN / DRYPLATE AND FILM CO. / Rochester N.Y. USA / PATENTED MAY 5. 1885', and serial no. 2767 stamped on bottom.

Mahogany rollfilm camera back for negatives 185 x 115 mm to replace the plate holder or dark slide of the field cameras of this period, such as Miss Acland's half-plate. The first rollfilms were called 'stripping films' as the photographic emulsion had to be stripped from its paper base for processing, but in 1889 Eastman introduced the first transparent celluloid-based film. This was the first commercially successful roll-holder.

Length 225 mm, width 155 mm, depth 65 mm.
Inventory no. 95,751.