Founded in the late 1800s after James H. SMith mustered out of the army and completed an apprenticeship to a photographer and went on to set up his own studio. by the 1870s, James H. Smith shifted his business to concentrate on "tools of the trade" and invented and manufactured camera stands, posing stools, burnishers, and darkroom equipment. "He moved his family and his business to the growing town of Chicago, Illinois. In 1901, fires in two successive years wiped out Smith's business and bankrupted him. Smith rebuilt the company by inventing a more powerful form of flash-powder. The company grew into the well known Smith-Victor Corporation, manufacturers of photographic lighting in 1953.