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Wing History Museum
The New England Journal of Photographic History

The Simon Wing collection is featured in The Journal New England Journal of Photographic History Issue 176, 2018 and Issue 180, 2022.

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The 2022 New England Journal of Photographic History, #180, begins over 100 years before the McDonald’s empire of franchises spread across the world. A New England father and son built a comparable enterprise involving photography. It is the fascinating story of Simon Wing and the 90-year dynasty he and his son, Harvey, built in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The keystone of their enterprise was a patented “multiplying” camera, allowing multiple images on a single photographic plate. Rather than selling this revolutionary camera directly, Simon designed a complex network of franchises, partnerships, and affiliations, involving not only cameras, but all the supplies necessary to operate a successful studio. The Journal also explores the public and private lives of these two men, including Simon’s 1892 run as America’s first Socialist Labor Party candidate for President. Four, richly illustrated, articles tell a truly engaging story, supplemented by 300+ pages of online information.

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​The 2018 New England Journal of Photographic History, #176, features Simon Wing, a New England photographer, entrepreneur, and one-time presidential candidate, his invention, the Wing Multiplying Camera, and the life of his daughter, Anna Wing. “Simon Wing’s Photographic Collection Comes Home,” by Randel Mott-Cobb, is a story about hidden cameras, images, and artifacts re-discovered and now on display in a new museum. “The Marvelous Multiplying Camera,” by Peter and Barbara Schultz, offers a history of Wing’s signature invention for speeding the production of tintype photographs. “It’s Complicated: A History of the Towne, Ober, and Towne & Whitney Studios,” by John Felix, traces the life of photographer Anna Wing Towne, Simon’s daughter, along with her husband, Willis Towne, his other wife, Clara Ober Towne, Anna’s business partner, Alma Whitney, and the intrepid cyclist, Mrs. Kapchowsky, aka Annie Londonderry. It really is complicated.

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