Todd,
Thanks for the additional shots of your Dad’s camera - a couple of interesting observations.
Yes, this is press type camera, but of a smaller size (2x3) than typically used by news photographers (4x5). I am not certain that the camera body itself is American made, there is no brand on it that I can see, but the focusing knobs with the long lines going around the knobs crossing the knurling is something, in my limited experience, I associate with German manufacturing. The Hugo Meyer Precision Range Finder is actually an attachment to the camera body and was certainly made before WW2, note that the range finder has U.S. patents and was made in U.S.A. - possibly the body, lens and shutter were made by Meyer in Germany, but I can’t say. Meyer was probably a big enough operation to have a New York sales branch???
In the bill of sale it says Watson(sp?) Palxxx(sp?), name not familiar to me - nevertheless, interesting that he traded in a 35mm range finder camera for this more serious range finder equipped view camera. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Optik_G%C3%B6rlitz
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Meyer
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...ullyhosted_011
https://graflex.org/speed-graphic/hugo-meyer.html
Meyer Optik in Germany survived WW2 after time and in fact is still in the lens business today.