The Newman & Guardia was a highly successful British firm that manufactured specialty cameras and equipment. It began with a young electrician named Arthur Samuel Newman (1861-1943), who designed several hand camera improvements while working for F & C Robins, a maker of microscopes that had recently expanded their operations to include cameras. By 1880, he was working as an electrician for H & E. J. Dale, where he continued experimenting in cameras. Mr. Newman soon became a recognized expert on shutters, and received his first patent (number 7156) in 1886, for a shutter sold by the London Stereoscopic Company.

After leaving Dale to concentrate on marketing his new shutter, Mr. Newman entered into a short-lived partnership with Frank Lindsay-Simpson, manufacturing what were described as "scientific instruments." It is believed that shortly thereafter, he met entrepreneur and amateur photographer Julio Guardia. Their camera business began in late 1890, with Mr. Guardia taking care of business while Mr. Newman focused on design and marketing strategies. A few original camera designs of standard, folding, stereoscopic, and twin-lens cameras were parlayed into a stable and successful business.

In 1893, company growth necessitated a move to 92 Shaftesbury Avenue in London, and within a few years, the incorporated business became known as Newman & Guardia Ltd., and its manufacturing operations grew to include several types of precision equipment. By 1896, Mr. Newman was designing a motion picture projector, and received a patent for the Kinematograph Camera, which was quickly purchased for publishing magnate Sir George Newnes’ expedition of Antarctica. By the dawn of the 20th century, Newman & Guardia were making and marketing film perforators, printing machines, and roll-film bench cameras, such as the Sibyl, which was available in 11 different models (including the Special, the De Luxe, the Imperial, the Postcard, the Stereoscopic, and the Baby Sibyl. Sadly, at the height of their success, 46-year-old Julio Guardia died in 1906. Mr. Newman's inability to operate the business on his own led to his departure from corporate operations, but he nevertheless retained the rights to the cameras and equipment he designed, which included the Nydia folding camera.

Mr. Newman entered a partnership with James A. Sinclair in 1909, and as Newman & Sinclair Ltd., he designed the Newman-Sinclair reflex camera and the Trellis wide-angle camera. Meanwhile, Newman & Guardia manufactured the Ural half-plate or stereoscopic camera and the Arctos field camera, along with Universal detective cameras, Self-Focusing reflex cameras, and Square Reflector cameras (similar in style to the Soho folding reflex camera). Mr. Newman went on to become a consultant with Eastman Kodak, where he invented the Baby Pathé 9.5mm amateur camera. He was an active member of the Royal Photographic Society and was one of the founders of the British Kinematograph Society in 1931. Eighty-three-year-old Arthur S. Newman died on August 12, 1943 in London.

Like their competitors, Newman & Guardia ceased commercial camera operations during World War II, and the facility was transformed into a munitions manufacturer. After the war, their output was severely compromised by lack of material availability, and the company is believed to have been finally dissolved around 1959. According to Norman Channing and Mike Dunn's text British Camera Makers, the name was later associated more with equipment than cameras until disappearing altogether after a receivership in May of 1970.



Ref:
1908 The Amateur Photographer, Vol. XLVII (London: Hazell, Watson & Viney), p. 120.

2016 Arthur Samuel Newman (URL: http://www.victorian-cinema.net/newman).

1996 British Camera Makers: An A-Z Guide to Companies and Products by Norman Channing and Mike Dunn (London: Classic Collection Publications), pp. 93, 95.

2014 The British Camera That Helped Get Pictures Moving (URL: https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2014/the-british-camera-that-helped-get-pictures-moving).

2007 Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Vol. I (New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group LLC), p. 999.

2010 Newman & Guardia (URL: http://www.storiadellafotografia.it/tag/wray).

2016 Newman and Guardia (URL: http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/ng_models.html).

CLICK HERE for a listing of Newman & Guardia cameras.

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