Barnett Michael Clinedinst (December 1835 – December 21, 1900) was an American photographer and inventor.[1] He invented the viewfinder and the mirror-and-prism "reflex" arrangement for which the single-lens reflex camera is named.[2]

Obituary in the Shenandoah Herald on December 28, 1900

He was born around December 1835 or 1837 in Woodstock, Virginia.[note 1][3] He was a bugler during the American Civil War for Stonewall Jackson.[1]

He died on December 21, 1900, in Washington, D.C. He was the father of Barnett McFee Clinedinst, who served as the official White House portrait photographer for the Presidential administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson,[1][2] and Benjamin West Clinedinst, a painter.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "B. M'F. Clinedinst, Photographer, 90. He Took Camera Portraits of Roosevelt, McKinley and Taft. Succumbs in Florida Home". The New York Times. March 18, 1953. Retrieved 2015-01-09. He was the son of the late Barnett Clinedinst, and early photographer who was a bugler with the Confederate Army of General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, and the late Mrs. Caroline South Clinedinst. ...
  2. ^ a b "Barnett M. Clinedinst". Camera Heritage Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-04-15.
  3. ^ Clinedinst's invention changed photography Archived 2015-01-09 at the Wayback Machine, by Charles Culbertson, at the News Leader (archived at GlobalPhotographyNews); published November 2, 2013; retrieved December 3, 2014
  4. ^ Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826-1925, edited by David Bernard Dearinger; published 2004 by Hudson Hills Press (via Google Books)
  5. ^ "Clinedinst, Benjamin West". The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. XIV. New York: J. T. White Company. 1910. p. 416.

Notes

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  1. ^ He used "December 1835" in the 1900 United States Census. Sources vary as to the exact year: the News-Leader Archived December 3, 2014, at archive.today says 1836, the New York Public Library says "ca. 1837", and the Camera Heritage Museum says "1838 abt".