Skip to content
The story below is an excerpt from our March/April 2018 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
David Schwartz operates the Camera Heritage Museum, a fixture in downtown Staunton, Virginia.
Cameras date to 1868 at the Camera Heritage Museum of Staunton, Virginia, where you can learn the history, science and art of photography—from bulky antiques to digital devices.
Museum founder David Schwartz zoomed into his camera career here in 1968—a full century after the earliest of the museum’s 6,000 cameras was constructed.
“I came here when I was 16 years old and didn’t leave,” Schwartz says with a smile. “This was originally a camera shop. We’ve got a little bit of a camera shop back there, but it’s mainly a museum.”
Now the camera shop owner, Schwartz has collected 2,300 cameras of his own. “And I didn’t want to get rid of my collection.”
So he opened a museum that has since developed into a non-profit entity, offering self-guided and guided tours for a fee.
“We’re definitely a novelty. We have everything from the cheapest to the top end,” Schwartz says. “And we have the largest collection of Brownies in the world. Of the 414 types made, we have 412.”
Today, Schwartz says, money is being raised for a larger museum facility. What’s more, the cameras keep coming: “We get donations. People know us all over the world. We’ve gotten some huge collections.
The museum sells whatever duplicate models arrive and displays what’s unique.
Besides cameras, you can also see original photographs of historical figures like Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln.
Schwartz’s small shop also still prints negatives—from film.
The Camera Heritage Museum, 1 W. Beverley St., Staunton, Va. Tours conducted Monday to Friday (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) and Saturdays (9 a.m.-2 p.m.). 540-886-8535/cameraheritagemuseum.com®fa
