When you walk into Neil Meachem’s basement, his penchant for collecting is on display and the evidence of his passion lines his walls.
While the 78-year-old has collected many things through his life, his most remarkable collection consists of 800 cameras meticulously displayed in his basement and includes a Sears camera almost identical to the first camera he ever used as a boy when he lived on a farm near Tisdale, Sask.
“I don't know why I got started collecting them to be perfectly honest with you. I guess somebody gave me a couple of cameras and, the next thing I know, I’m collecting them. I just got into it. I don't remember what spurred me on," Meachem said.
Meachem began acquiring cameras when he was in his thirties. He started off collecting Kodak, Ansco and Polaroid brand cameras, but as time went on his collection branched out. As knowledge of his collection spread, people would give him cameras to add to it. Now his collection includes cameras, video cameras, some camera lenses and novelty cameras.
He was on a fishing trip in Seattle, Wash., when he landed one of his first big hauls of cameras. An old drive-in theatre had been converted into an area where people could sell their second-hand goods and Meachem came across a camera collector.
“I probably brought 50 to 60 cameras home from that,” Meachem said. "They were a good price and he threw in a bunch that needed repairs. They were all over 50 years old, so I didn’t have to pay duty on them.”
Meachem’s wife Elaine was not expecting him to return with so many cameras.
“That was a bit of a surprise,” she said.
Despite his massive collection of cameras, Meachem isn’t much of a photographer himself.
Most of the cameras he owns are functional, but Meachem just doesn’t have a desire to shoot photos any more. He used to enjoy shooting photos on 35 mm cameras but lost his interest when digital cameras came around.
“I just don’t want to take pictures anymore,” Meachem said.
On top of losing the urge to shoot photos, he learned it is expensive to use the old cameras.
When Meachem, Elaine and their kids went to Disneyland they took one of his more unique cameras to capture the trip – a Minox (German spy camera) made in 1948. The camera is long and thin, and not much larger than a few pencils. It comes on a string and Meachem said the camera was used during the Second World War.
“They would take a picture and they use this string for (shooting from) different lengths so that they could get up close. And they'd hide the camera somewhere and they take pictures of documents,” Meachem said.
Elaine thought it was the perfect size to take on a trip. “We had just gotten it and you could get film so I thought, ‘This would be cool. I can just throw it in my purse,' ” Elaine said.
But, in the end, it cost them $40 or $50 to develop eight photos and the family learned it might not be worth using the old cameras.
Along with the Minox, Meachem owns some really unique cameras, including a working minature Hit camera that is just a couple of inches tall, a Polaroid Model 95 and an 1889 Kodak studio camera on wheels with glass plates.
His collection is so unique that about 20 years ago, 30 of his cameras were displayed at the Musée Heritage Museum.
One of the cameras on display is his wife’s favourite, and the only camera that has a spot on the main floor of the family home.
Elaine likes the camera more for the story than the camera itself. A friend of the couple found a Kodak Century from the early 1900s in South Dakota in an antique shop and went back and forth with the shop owner to buy it for Meachem. They eventually settled on a price of $250 and the friend shipped the camera to Canada for the Meachems, which cost another $250.
Although Elaine isn’t a collector herself, she helps organize and track down information about the cameras.
Every camera that's purchased is put into the computer on a spreadsheet, which is organized alphabetically and tracks things like the year it was made, the price to purchase it and the value, and then it is printed off and kept in a binder. Any duplicate cameras are put in a second room which has about 50 in it at the moment but Meachem plans to get rid of those.
Meachem still collects cameras, but he has slowed down on acquiring them. He will sometimes check out garage sales to see if he can find any he doesn’t have yet.
“I'm still into it. That's the unfortunate part of it, I don't know enough to leave it alone.”
Meachem’s basement walls are lined with cameras, but there are also hundreds of collectible spoons on display. And in several photo albums kept in a tidy shelf in the corner of the room, Meachem has 3,000 matchbook covers displayed and organized in alphabetical order. He collected them during his time travelling when he worked in sales and has unique covers from all over the world.
On another shelf in the basement, a set of books is organized with his collection of 3,000 pins. Meachem served as the chair of the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce and picked up many of the pins during pin swaps with business leaders when going to other communities.
During his lifetime, Meachem has also collected salt and pepper shakers, and records, although he has got rid of both of those collections. The 300 records were handed down to his son Bill. Meachem has also collected model ships, and although he still has a few left, he has gotten rid of most of that collection.
Upstairs in another room, Meachem has a few books of coins and bills that he has collected from trips around the world. Some of the money was brought back from friends travelling to foreign countries.
While Elaine isn’t a collector, she sometimes has a laugh at the sprawling collections. In the end, she loves the happiness it brings her husband.
“The big thing is, and I always tell him, I'm going to go before him because I'm not sure I can deal with having to downsize all this stuff. Because it's important to him specifically. And it brings a lot of memories and a lot of them are fun memories.”
Elaine was the one who suggested he display all of his collections on the walls of the basement, rather than keep things tucked away in boxes.
“I told him when I realized he was starting to collect things, that if you don't display them, what good are they in a box?
“He loves it, so why not enjoy it?”
