National Air and Space Museum Archives

Ansco Autoset John Glenn Advertisement Slides

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2019.0047
Creators:
Ansco (film manufacturer)
Dates:
post February 20, 1962
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
.05 Cubic feet
One legal folder
Repository:
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset model camera. This collection consists of a packet of four 35mm color slides produced from color photographs taken by Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35mm camera as an advertising promotion.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of a packet of four Anscochrome 35 mm color slides (transparencies) produced from color photographs taken by astronaut John Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35 mm camera as an advertising promotion. The collection also includes the original slide envelope with a description of each photograph.
1. View of the Atlas Mountains in Sahara Desert. Coast of Morocco and Atlantic Ocean in foreground.
2. One of the three sunsets Col. Glenn saw.
3. Clouds over the Pacific Ocean.
4. East coast of Florida, Atlantic Ocean in foreground, Gulf of Mexico in center background.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Slides are presented in original order. Digital images show fronts and backs of slides in reflected light, a view of the slides in transmitted light, and front and back of the original envelope containing the slides.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset camera. The fully automatic Ansco Autoset model was manufactured for Ansco by the Japanese camera company Minolta, being essentially the same design as the Minolta Hi-Matic. For ease of use by Glenn, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) technicians attached a pistol grip handle and trigger to this commercial 35 mm camera, as well as a large viewfinder on top as Glenn, wearing a spacesuit helmet, could not get his eye close to a built-in viewfinder.
The Ansco brand name dates from the merger in 1901 of two American photography firms, E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. and Scovill Manufacturing. In 1907, the company now known as the Anthony & Scovill Co., producers of photographic films, papers, and cameras, officially changed their name to Ansco. In 1928, Ansco (based in Binghamton, New York) merged with the German photographic company Agfa to form the Agfa-Ansco Corporation which soon came under the control of the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben; the following year Agfa-Ansco's holding company name was changed to American IG Chemical Corporation, although their products retained the Agfa-Ansco brand name. In 1939, American IG was merged with General Aniline to form General Aniline & Film (GAF) with Agfa-Ansco becoming a subsidiary of GAF. Agfa-Ansco's German connections became an issue with the entrance of the United States into World War II, and in 1941 the US government seized GAF's American interests (including Agfa-Ansco) as enemy property. In 1944, "Agfa" was dropped from the name to become the Ansco Division of GAF. The US government continued to run the company for the next twenty years, with GAF not becoming a public firm until 1965. By the late 1970s the Ansco company had ceased the manufacture of film and was effectively dead; in 1978 GAF sold the rights to the Ansco trademark name to a Hong Kong firm which produced the last Ansco brand cameras in the early 1990s.

Administration

Author
Melissa A. N. Keiser
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Bill Jonscher, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0047
Processing Information
Arranged and described by Patti Williams, 2020; revised, scanned, and encoded by Melissa A. N. Keiser, 2023.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Preferred Citation
Ansco Autoset John Glenn Advertisement Slides, Acc. NASM.2019.0047, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Materials
The modified Ansco Autoset camera used by astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. on the Mercury Friendship 7 flight is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Camera, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7, A19670198000.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Astronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Color slides Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Space photography Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Space flight Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Glenn, John Herschel, Jr., 1921-2016 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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