One of the biggest camera assortments on the planet is shrouded away in a town lobby in a Fife seaside town – yet barely anyone realizes it is there. 

In any event 3,000 cameras, including some going back well longer than a century, had a place with the late Neville "Jim" Matthew. 

He resigned to the pleasant East Neuk town of St Monans after a lifelong that took him around the globe. 

He assumed control over the previous Salvation Army lobby to store his prized assortment. Inside the corridor, a great many lines of cameras, frill and memorabilia fill the racks. 

They incorporate stereoscopic and 3D cameras just as East European models, including numerous that were uncommon in the West. 

Notorious Box Brownies – including Six-20 C and D models on lower rack 

At the core of the assortment is a variety of Kodak Brownie cameras – highlighting pretty much every model ever created. 

The Brownie was the main moderate camera and could be purchased for only one dollar when it was first sold in 1900. 

Jim had needed his assortment to be an open fascination, however he was getting more seasoned and in sick wellbeing, and the assignment presented too huge a test. 

Rather, he was restricted to opening once every year for the town celebration and for intermittent private viewings. 

Kodak Cine Cameras, including (from right) a Brownie Movie and a Brownie Turret camera. 

"He truly appreciated conversing with individuals about it when they came into the corridor," says his widow Dorothy. 

"I needed to descend and safeguard them once in a while on the grounds that he didn't have a clue when to stop. 

"He was a generally excellent speaker. He didn't have a casual banter yet on the off chance that it was something he was keen on he could talk for quite a while." 

Jim, who passed on matured 81 toward the finish of 2017, had started the assortment 24 years sooner out traveling to Vancouver in Canada to see his girl. 

They were meandering around classical shops and his better half Dorothy got him an old camera as a present. 

Kodak Retina and Retinette models 

Before long, as Jim recouped from heart medical procedure, they went down the west shore of the US to Oregon where there were a great deal of old fashioned shops. 

"He began to potter around and find many cameras that he preferred," Dorothy says. 

"It extended from that point. At the point when he got his psyche into something he goes full scale. 

"He won't stop. He never truly said why. It was only that he began and proceeded." 

Jim Matthew gathered cameras all round the world 

Dorothy says Jim was gathering "at the best time" since individuals were disposing of their old cameras for new advanced models. 

"At whatever point he headed off to some place he would consistently return with a case heap of cameras," she says. 

He voyaged a great deal for work and delight and he would consistently look out swap meets or places selling recycled things. 

Poland demonstrated a productive objective as they were disposing of a ton of Russian cameras from the Soviet time. 

The Lubitel cameras started in Russia 

"He would attempt to discover cameras from each nation when he went on vacation," Dorothy says. 

He would likewise inquire as to whether they had the opportunity to discover a camera for him, and they all the time did. 

Jim was conceived in Bolton in Greater Manchester and went to the ocean as a designer cadet. 

During his time adrift, his folks moved to Glasgow, where he met Dorothy – and changed his name from Neville, which was not one that went down well in Scotland. 

Brownie Flash 20's 

A choice of Jim's collapsing cameras 

The couple were before long hitched and had three kids. 

Jim's work as a marine architect took him all around the globe. 

The family lived for a long time in Hong Kong, two years in Greece, five years in Holland and 12 years in Canada. 

Dorothy says Jim "lived for movement" and there were not many spots he had not visited. 

Background: advert for Kodak instamatic camera. Frontal area, left to right: No.1 Kodal, Brownie Pliant, Six-16 collapsing camera (USA); Brownie Flash, Six-20, c.1941; Kodak Regent, Compur screen, Zeiss Tessar focal point, collapsing camera, c.1935-39 (Germany) 

He went on numerous outings all alone in light of the fact that he was just keen on being behind the camera, his better half says. 

"Me being there was a misuse of cash. 

"He took great photos so I think he appreciated the outcomes. He needed to make it even more an image instead of only a photograph. He was totally caught up with it." 

As Jim's assortment developed, the couple lived in Holland and he put away his cameras at his office. 

In anticipation of retirement, they purchased a house in St Monans to be close to Dorothy's mom. 

A little determination of ViewMaster stereoscopic watchers and slides 

It was not large enough to store the camera assortment – so Jim purchased the nearby Salvation Army Hall. 

Very nearly three years after his passing Dorothy is working with an altruistic trust to move responsibility for building and the assortment and transform it into a gallery. 

Dorothy, who currently lives in Canada, said she was "charmed" at the possibility. 

"I had no clue about that could occur and I was stressing over what we would do," she says. 

"I didn't need them to be tossed out."