Date of use : 1908 USA

M.A. Seed (Moses A. Seed) Dry Plate Company

The M.A. Seed (Moses A. Seed) Dry Plate Company was founded in 1883 in St. Louis, Missouri, by Lancashire-born Miles Ainscoe (also known as Anscow) Seed. Seed was born in England in 1843 and emigrated to the United States in 1867, beginning work at the John A. Scholten photographic studio in St. Louis. Through his experience and own experiments, he developed a dry plate in 1879 and introduced it to the market as the "Seed Dry Plate."

In 1902, Eastman Kodak acquired the M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company, and Seed continued to work as a consultant during this period. He passed away in St. Louis in 1913 at the age of 70. The company's most important products were glass-based dry photographic plates. These products were typically marketed under the "Arrow Brand" and came in various sizes, providing great convenience for photographers.

These plates, pre-coated with emulsion at the factory, were designed as ready-to-use plates that could be inserted into a camera and exposed immediately. The Dry Plates were offered in special types such as "Extra Rapid Dry Plates," formulated for high sensitivity, with packaging emphasizing that they were "perfect" and "extremely sensitive." Occasionally, the company also produced 3″×4″ projector slide plates.

The M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company is considered one of the pioneers of dry plate technology in late 19th-century photography. Dry plates were much more practical than the earlier wet collodion plates, which had to be prepared and used on the spot.

Although the M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company is not as widely known today as Kodak, its role in photographic history is significant. The systematic production techniques developed in Seed's factory helped establish trust in the dry plate market. Furthermore, the company provides a key example of how independent American firms innovated and developed new products before Kodak became a nationwide monopoly in the United States.

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