14 and 12 researched events on one shared scale. Graflex 1887–present, Wollensak 1899–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
William F. Folmer and William E. Schwing began in New York with metalwork, lighting and bicycles, then moved steadily into photographic goods. Their 1890 incorporation and camera offerings of the mid-1890s established the enterprise that would become one of Rochester's defining professional-camera makers.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
Folmer & Schwing's own camera line emerged in the 1890s. The 1898 catalog presents Graphic, Graphic Senior, Cycle Graphic and stereoscopic cameras in several plate formats, alongside a broad lens trade. These compact field cameras supplied the name and practical folding architecture from which later Graphic systems grew.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
William Folmer's reflex-camera work joined through-the-lens viewing to a focal-plane shutter. Kingslake dates the first experimental Graflex to 1898 and describes the decisive 1904 change to a dependable curtain with fixed-width apertures, a pattern that became the mechanical signature of Graflex reflex and Speed Graphic cameras.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex 1906 Catalog
George Eastman purchased Folmer & Schwing in 1905 and moved the operation to Rochester. The organization became a Kodak division and later the Folmer-Century operation, bringing Century's view and Cirkut panoramic lines into the same professional-camera shop while William Folmer remained general manager through 1926.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1920 Catalog
Auto, Revolving Back, Press, Naturalist, Series B, Series C, Series D and Home Portrait cameras turned the large-format reflex idea into a broad working system. Formats ranged from compact roll-film sizes to 5 x 7, with the mirror and hood giving photographers an upright, full-size image for focusing before exposure.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1920 Catalog · Graflex 1906 Catalog
The Speed Graphic placed Graflex's curtain shutter in a folding, direct-view camera. Top-handle, larger-board, Pre-Anniversary and Anniversary generations expanded lens choice and refined focusing and handling. By the 1930s and 1940s the camera had become closely identified with American news and military photography.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex Graphic Model History · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera · Graflex 1920 Catalog
A court-directed divestiture separated Kodak's professional-camera operation. The Folmer Graflex Corporation took over the assets and continued in Rochester, carrying forward Graflex, Graphic, Cirkut and studio equipment through the Depression and wartime production before the corporate name became Graflex, Inc. in the mid-1940s.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1927 Catalog
The wooden Crown View was followed by the metal Graphic View and longer-rail Graphic View II. These cameras put generous rise, shift, swing and tilt into studio and location tools, sharing selected boards or adapters with Graphic cameras and giving architectural and industrial photographers a distinctly modern American view-camera option.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List
Anniversary and military Graphics, the Combat Graphic, Super D and postwar Pacemaker series carried the company through wartime and into a changed press market. Institutions and working photographers valued robust construction, interchangeable holders and the ability to combine rangefinder, scale and ground-glass focusing on one body.
Dated in the sources as “1940s-1950s”. Decade wording normalized to its full calendar span for scaling.
Gottlieb's Life and Work · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera
Pacemaker Speed and Crown Graphics standardized the postwar folding platform, while the Century Graphic adapted its ideas to 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. Super Graphic and Super Speed Graphic added a revolving Graflok back, built-in rangefinding and electrical shutter features, carrying large-format versatility to the end of production.
Graflex Graphic Model History · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
Graflex acquired the Ciro camera line and sold Ciro-flex, Graflex 22, Graphic 35, Century 35, Stereo Graphic and Graphic 70 cameras. These 120, 35mm stereo and 70mm products widened the badge beyond Rochester's traditional reflex and press cameras, though several compact lines depended on acquired or imported manufacture.
General Precision Equipment acquired Graflex in 1956, and the company moved to a new Monroe Avenue plant near Pittsford in 1957. The catalog still centered on professional Graphic cameras, film holders and lighting, while product development reached toward lighter Super models and new medium-format systems.
Graflex 1958 Price List · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
The XL replaced the folding bed with a modular medium-format body, dedicated focusing barrels and interchangeable roll, sheet and instant-film backs. Rangefinder, Standard and thin Super Wide Angle bodies accepted lenses from Zeiss, Schneider and Rodenstock, making the last Graflex camera system unlike its press-camera ancestors.
Singer's ownership carried Graflex cameras into the early 1970s, but camera manufacture ended in 1973 and tooling was sold to Toyo. The original manufacturing company did not continue as a camera maker; surviving cameras, manuals and the specialist community now carry the name's practical and historical continuity.
Stephan Rauber and brothers Andrew and John Wollensak organized Rauber & Wollensak Optical Company in Rochester on July 1, 1899. Working first in a 250-square-foot rented barn, they made photographic shutters. The firm incorporated in 1900, moved to larger quarters, and adopted the Wollensak Optical Company name in 1902.
John Wollensak established an optical department in 1902 with three grinding and polishing spindles and one assistant; its first lens followed that September. Catalogs soon paired lenses with shutters. By 1914, after several moves and rapid hiring, a dedicated 40,000-square-foot Clinton Avenue factory housed a workforce of roughly 300.
Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline
The purchase of Rochester Lens Company in 1906 brought the Royal Anastigmat and Royal Portrait designs, renamed Velostigmat and Vitax. Andrew Wollensak's complex shutter work received a 1910 patent, while the 1911 collaboration with H. Oliver Bodine turned his Pictorial Lens into the Verito, a durable name in soft-focus portraiture.
Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · US961192A - Photographic Shutter · Wollensak Timeline
During the First World War, about ninety percent of Wollensak production served military needs, including trench periscopes, battery-command telescopes, aerial cameras, and related optics. A three-story addition doubled Clinton Avenue floor space in 1918; employment rose from about 500 that year to more than 600 in 1920.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
After Kodak stopped buying the Optimo shutter in 1920, Wollensak broadened its output to telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, movie equipment, and other instruments. It moved lensmaking to the spacious 872 Hudson Avenue building in 1925, expanded its catalog, and partnered with Howard D. Beach on a multi-focal portrait lens in 1929.
Photographic Lenses and Shutters, 1926-1927 · Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
Wollensak devoted its Second World War output to military equipment, from aerial-camera shutters and binoculars to optical components for the Norden bombsight. The rapid Rapax shutter emerged from wartime needs. Afterward, a public naming contest supplied the Raptar name, and coated Raptar lenses replaced the Velostigmat line in 1947.
Wollensak supplied Graflex with Optar-branded lenses beginning in 1942 while selling related designs under its own Velostigmat and later Raptar names. Wocote hard anti-reflection coating distinguished the postwar line. The shared optical ancestry makes brand engraving important: an Optar is a Graflex product identity, not a separate Wollensak system.
Wollensak Serial Numbers · Raptar Enlarging Lenses · Wollensak Timeline
Wollensak acquired rights to Western Electric's Fastax high-speed camera in 1950, strengthening a scientific and industrial line able to record extremely rapid events. The concentric-mirror Mirrotel and Fototel followed in 1952. Revere-era catalogs then joined these specialist products with stereo, 8 mm, and 16 mm cameras carrying Wollensak lenses.
Wollensak Timeline · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co. · Wollensak 16 Magazine Model 91
Revere Camera Company bought roughly seventy percent of Wollensak stock in May 1953 and later acquired the balance. Wollensak initially remained a separate entity and reached about 1,200 workers that year. Revere-backed still, stereo, and movie cameras used the Wollensak name, often as premium versions of established Revere designs.
3M acquired Revere in 1960 and placed Wollensak within its photographic and optical businesses. Rochester lenses served demanding work, including a specially made 25 mm Raptar used during Alan Shepard's 1961 flight. Yet employment declined, lens sales contracted, operating losses mounted, and 3M sold Fastax to Redlake in 1968.
Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co.
3M sold the division in 1969 to interests that formed Wollensak, Inc. The new company acquired Polan Industries but struggled with losses, debt, and delivery delays. A federal investigation rejected its claim that increased imports were the major cause of serious injury. Directors voted for bankruptcy in October 1972, closing all facilities.
Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline · Optical Elements: Wollensak, Inc., Rochester, N.Y.
After liquidation, Rudolph Novak bought the old 872 Hudson lens plant and in 1975 acquired the Wollensak name, drawings, and technical information, later making a poorly documented range as Wollensak Optical, Inc. Virginville Lens Company bought the building and contents in 2003 and later registered the trademark; the factory became housing in 2020.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
