Palmer Cox and His Brownies

1840 -- 1924

Palmer Cox was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1840. He moved to San Francisco sometime between 1857 and 1863, accounts vary, where he was unsuccessful in business but very successful writing and drawing cartoons for newspapers. He moved to New York sometime between 1875 and 1878. The first Brownie stories appeared in magazines in 1883, and by 1900 he and the Brownies had attained fame and fortune. The illustrated story poems were regularly published in St. Nicholas magazine as well as in book form. He was the first to put in visual form the imaginary little elfin creatures of Scotish folklore.

The popularity of the Brownie stories with young people was a natural for George Eastman to seize as the name of the new camera being introduced as "easily operated by any school boy or girl." No one seems to know what relationship Eastman and Cox had regarding the name or the figures. The figures that appear in advertisements during 1900 vary somewhat. They represent Cox figures but are not Cox like.