Seneca Camera Manufacturing Co., Rochester, NY

Columbian View Camera

Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c. 1901
Construction: back focus via push-pull; double swing; reversing by removable back; 
Materials:  mahogany body, cherry base, brass hardware, black fabric bellows
Sizes Offered: 6.5x8.5 (photos above); 8x10
Notes: This camera is not in any of the many extant Seneca catalogs, but is in the Jas. H. Smith catalog listed above.  Only Senecas have that distinctive backwards facing teardrop shaped rear swing hardware, so Smith might have contracted with Seneca to build it for them.  It differs from the Seneca Competitor only in that the rear focus is sliding rather than rack and pinion.  Chicago (the location of Jas. H. Smith & Co.) hosted the Columbian Exposition in 1893.  It is not much of a stretch to imagine that this camera might have originated about that time.  The mystery of this camera continues in that the camera photographed above, which is the spitting image of the Smith engraving, has an apparently genuine Century Camera Co. Century label, and even sports a CCC (Century Camera Co.) shutter.  Advertised Century cameras were of a different design, however. 
References:
Jas. H. Smith & Co. (Chicago) Cat. 1901, p. 19 (illustrated engraving)

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