Calumet
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In 1939 Kenneth E. Becker founded the Calumet Manufacturing Company in Chicago.[1]
In the beginning its main business was sporting goods. It began to sell cameras through the store and to manufacture darkroom equipment.[2] The company later became Calumet Photographic.[3]
In 1955 Kodak sold the rights to its Master View 4x5 camera to Calumet. The Calumet CC-40n monorail camera series was derived from the Master View. Calumet started to develop innovations for view cameras like the Caltar large format lens line and the C-2 roll film holder.
In 1980 Calumet was a full-line supplier of professional photographic products. Calumet stopped making its own cameras and instead sold ones made by Dutch manufacturer Cambo. The company got together with Keith, Johnson and Pelling, a retail chain in the United Kingdom, and started a number of European companies under a holding company, Calumet International.
Calumet Photographic filed for bankruptcy in the USA on 13 March 2014.[4][5] Calumet was by then only a distributor in the USA and some other countries, offering sales and rental of professional equipment, by many manufacturers including Cambo, which was named as one of Calumet's creditors.[5] All the Calumet stores in the US were closed prior to the liquidation. A marketing firm, C&A Marketing, bought some of the bankrupt company assets, and re-opened at three stores, in central and outlying parts of Chicago.[6] As of July 2020, the US website redirects to the web-only Ritz Camera, also owned by C&A Marketing.
There are also still a number of Calumet stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and until 2020, the UK.[7] As of July 2020 these still offer Cambo (and only Cambo) large-format products. The mainland European websites refer to separate companies Calumet Photographic B.V., bvba, and GmbH; they do not mention or link to the US site, suggesting they are a separate group. The UK company Calumet Photographic Ltd merged with Wex Photo Video in 2020, and their website does not list any Cambo products (or any large-format at all).
Cameras
- C-1 8x10 view camera
- 4x5-inch monorail cameras:
Notes
- ↑ The word 'calumet' occurs as a place- or company name in various places in North America, but notably in Illinois. It is supposedly a word of French origin, referring to native-American ceremonial pipes, and the reeds used to make their stems: see Ceremonial pipe at Wikipedia.
- ↑ For example, Calumet Mfg. Co. advertised stainless steel sinks, buckets, developing tanks and trays and print washers in Popular Photography, October 1951, p108 (archived at Google Books).
- ↑ The company was still Calumet Manufacturing as late as 1968: Kenneth Becker is described as President of the company by that name in the College Catalogue 1968-69 (pdf) (archived) of the Agricultural and Technical College at Farmingdale, NY (part of the State University), p23-4 (Becker was a member of the College's advisory committee on photographic technology).
- ↑ Calumet Photographic to Liquidate, Closes US Stores (archived) in PDNPulse a blog by staff of the US photo magazine Photo District News.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chicago Tribune 13 March 2014 (archived).
- ↑ Calumet Photographic Closes Final Three Chicago Area Locations, 26 January 2016, at Chicago Business.
- ↑ See Calumet Photographic's Belgian, Netherlands or German sites.
Links
- Calumet monorail on Au fil des images by J.C.Boussat (in French)
Companies of Chicago (Illinois) |
Adams & Westlake | Central Camera Co. | American Advertising and Research Co. | Bernard | Burke & James | Busch | Calumet | Candid | Chicago Aerial | Chicago Camera Co. | Chicago Ferrotype Company | Deardorff | De Vry | Drucker | Galter | Geiss | Herold | Imperial | Kemper | Lennor Engineering Co. | Metropolitan Industries | Monarch | Montgomery Ward | Pho-Tak | QRS Company | Rolls | Sans & Streiffe | Sears | Seymour | Spartus | The Camera Man | United States Camera Co. | Western Camera Manufacturing Co. | Yale | Zar | Zenith |
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