The King Camera

Blog Post #8

This is a story that requires us to go back again, to the beginning. We just finished covering the end of Davidsons’ 50 plus years in business. Now we go back to 1900 and follow young David’s commitment to a part time job that he accepted for $0.25 and hour. The job was working for the minister of his church, Wallace Nutting, assisting him at his new endeavor of hand colored photography.

So young David, working part time at Nutting’s photography studio in Cranston R.I., was learning matting, framing, and working in the dark room. But David was anxious to learn the art of photography. I’m sure it didn’t take long before working in the field with Nutting created David’s desire to have and use his own camera.

David Davidson had developed the largest paper route in Providence while he was still in grade school. He decided to sell the paper route to create the funds needed to purchase his field camera. The sale of the paper route gave David $100. With $7 more, he purchased his first camera – a King Camera made by Rochester Camera Company.

The $107 that Davidson spent on the King Camera in 1900/1901 would be equal to over $4000 today. The camera is part of the Davidson Family Collection. Thanks to them, I have photos of the camera that started it all!

The arena for much of Davidson’s early photography training was Roger Williams Park, as it bordered the Nutting home. The subject of these photographs were the flocks of sheep that wandered the park.

The remarkable similarity between the Wallace Nutting picture, “A Warm Spring Day”,

and Davidson’s “Beside Still Waters” and “The Lambs May Feast”,

is confirmation that those shoulder to shoulder photography sessions took place between Wallace Nutting and young David Davidson in Roger Williams Park, back at the turn of the century.

An ‘Eventful Journey’ and ‘Seasons Greetings from the Davidsons’?

A story for another day…