Kodak Autographic Instructions

The Autographic feature was introduced by Kodak in 1914 and made available for all models of its folding cameras. A hatch in the camera back gave access to the backing of the special Autographic film. A small chromed stylus was used to write notes in the margins of the pictures, and it could be stored when not in use in a bracket next to the lens mount. By exposing the inscribed note briefly to light, the message was recorded directly on the negative. I haven't seen much evidence that Kodak camera users actually took advantage of the Autographic feature, but Kodak kept putting it on their folders until 1932.

Here is an example print found in a junk store and posted to Flickr by Fred the Oyster:

The following excerpt from the Pocket 1A model Kodak manual explains the use of the Autographic feature in detail.

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