During the 1860 to 1881 period photographs produced in the United States were made by a small number of professional photographers who used "wet sensitized plates" in their cameras for recording of the invisible image, that finally became visible by a chemical solution developing process.

Photographers in the 1860 period prepared their own "wet sensitized plates", by dissolving silver in an acid solution, to which certain chemicals were added forming a light sensitized viscous emulsion that was thinly spread on one side of a glass plate, and while still wet and tacky, the plate was inserted into a glass plate holder with the sensitized side facing the dark side of the plate holder.

The entire operation of preparing the sensitized emulsion to loading the wet plate in a holder had to be done in a darkroom by trial and error methods which at best under favorable conditions was a laborious procedure often beset with many problems, some of which resulted in very poor to no photographic image recorded upon exposure of the plate in the camera.

The first naval photographs recorded in our historical files are credited to Mr. Matthew Brady, a celebrated Civil War photographer, who in 1862 exposed wet plates in photographing a small group of officers and men on the Federal Ironclad Monitor following its battle with the Ironclad Merrimac at Hampton Roads, VA.

About 1868 the Naval Observatory and the Naval Bureau of Ordnance conducted some minor experimental photography in the Washington, DC area using a view camera and wet plates.

Apparently the few photographs made during the 1868 experiments were not very good, and due to the laborious process involved in the "wet plate" period, very little use of photography was made by the Navy until after the turn of the century with the advent of photographic dry plates and cameras using sensitized film.

In 1878 Mr. George Eastman, a 24 year old amateur photographer, began making photographs using sensitized glass dry plates with information and material he had obtained from England. Mr. Eastman was the first in this country to demonstrate the greater convenience and reliability of light sensitive gelatine coated dry photographic plates compared to the cumbersome, complicated wet photographic plates.

In 1881 Mr. George Eastman and Mr. Henry A. Strong in Rochester, NY formed a partnership known as the Eastman Dry Plate Company, and with six employees started manufacturing sensitized dry photographic plates for sale to the professional photographers in the United States.

In 1885 Eastman American film was announced. In 1888 Mr. Eastman coined the name "Kodak" as a distinctive trademark which could be spelled and pronounced easily in any language. At this time Mr. Eastman introduced the number one Kodak camera which was placed on the market loaded with Eastman American film for 100 pictures which sold for $25.00. The camera and exposed film were returned to the Eastman Company in Rochester where the film was developed and one print made from each negative. The camera was then reloaded with fresh film and returned to the customer for $10.00. For this type of picture taking Mr. Eastman coined the slogan "You press the button - we do the rest".

In 1890 the first folding Kodak camera was introduced which could produce 48 pictures 4"x 5". This camera was the first daylight loading camera to be placed on the market in this country using packaged roll film. The user could load and unload film in the camera at his own convenience, eliminating the necessity of returning the camera to the Eastman Company in Rochester, New York. In 1898 Kodak marketed what is considered to be the ancestor of all modern roll film cameras, "The Folding Pocket Kodak Camera" which produced a negative 2-1/4" x 3-1/4" which remained the standard picture size for decades.

In 1900 the first of the famous "Brownie" cameras was introduced by Kodak. This camera sold for $1.00 and used roll film which sold for fifteen cents per roll. This camera provided the hobby of photography within the financial reach of everyone interested in taking pictures.

In 1912 Eastman Kodak organized the first formal Photographic Research Laboratory in American industry under the direction of Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees. Also this same year Kodak established the Hawk-Eye optical plant in Rochester, NY. These two Kodak divisions over the years have provided valuable service to various agencies of our government in the development and utilization of photographic science, particularly the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.

Picture taking in the Navy shortly after the turn of the century began as Kodak had made available amateur cameras using daylight load film and packaged processing chemicals which could be used easily. With these cameras a number of naval enlisted men onboard most of our major naval ships became the "ship's photographer" with the approval of the ship's commanding officer. These ship's photographers, in addition to their regular duty assignments, were engaged in taking pictures for sale to the ship's crew. They were not sanctioned as official Navy photographers by the Navy Department in Washington, DC - however, the Navy Department used some of the pictures made by these ship's photographers for recruiting and public information purposes and for historical records. These ship's photographers furnished their own equipment and materials for their picture business; the only thing the Navy furnished was a small darkroom space about the size of a janitor's closet. This private picture business was continued until about April or May, 1918 when the Navy Department then furnished one Kodak camera and developing outfit to all ships and stations.

Many of these ship's photographers produced good quality photographs; one collection of fine pictures was made by Roy E. Wayne, Musician First Class, USN, in 1918 when the Hoover Mission was sent by the U. S. Government to the Ukraine S.E. European area. Mr. Wayne, then being a member of the Admiral's band who accompanied the Mission group, made approximately 2400 photographs, which upon his return to the United States, the Navy Department in Washington, DC made arrangements with Mr. Wayne for a royalty to be paid him for prints made from his negatives which were used by a number of U. S. Government agencies.