1917-1922 / Conley Kewpie No.2A / Antique Camera

The Conley Kewpie No. 2A is a classic box camera produced between approximately 1917 and 1922, designed to use 116 roll film and produce 2½ x 4¼ inch exposures. It features a wooden body covered in leatherette with metal parts that are either nickel-plated or anodized black, and it employs a meniscus achromatic lens with fixed focus. The camera includes a rotating wheel over the front of the lens with four aperture settings (f/14, f/16, f/22, f/32) and has a shutter release lever that trips the shutter both ways, with a “B” timed exposure option. Uniquely, its film winding knob is located on the bottom of the camera’s side rather than at the top, and the inner film cartridge slides out the side instead of front or back, making it distinctive among Conley Kewpie models. It was a simple, inexpensive camera that offered decent manual control for its era, popularized through Sears, Roebuck & Co., which bought Conley Camera Co. and ceased production of this model by 1927.