GEORGE EASTMAN
George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company, is heralded as the father
of popular photography and inventor of motion-picture film. He was born in 1854
in the Central New York village of Waterville. That same year, his father,
George Washington Eastman, established Eastman?s Commercial College in Rochester.
After many trips between Waterville and Rochester, the elder Eastman moved the
family to Rochester in 1860. Two years later, he died suddenly, leaving his
family with few financial resources.
George Eastman left school at age 14 to support his mother, Maria Kilbourn
Eastman, and two older sisters, Ellen and Kate. He first worked at a local
insurance company and then was hired as a junior clerk by the Rochester Savings
Bank.
In 1878, one of Eastman?s colleagues suggested that Eastman, 23, take a camera
on an upcoming vacation with this mother to Santo Domingo. Eastman bought a
photographic outfit, and although he never made the journey, he became fully
engrossed in photography.
The weight, awkwardness, and cost of a photographic outfit soon led Eastman to
experiment on improvements. Unhappy with the excessive work and materials
required to take and develop photographs, Eastman searched for a simpler way to
develop negatives. He spent three years in his mother?s kitchen experimenting
with gelatin emulsions. By 1880, Eastman had invented and patented a dry-plate
coating machine.
In 1881, with the financial backing of Henry Strong, Eastman and Strong formed
the Eastman Dry Plate Company. Eastman, treasurer of his newly formed company,
resigned from the Rochester Savings Bank. In 1884, the Eastman Dry Plate Company
was reincorporated as the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. They then patented
and produced rollable film as an alternative to the glass negative.
Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company in 1892, an organization that
revolutionized photography through simplification. With a series of landmark
innovations, the company created small, easy-to-use cameras like the famous
Kodak camera introduced in 1888 with the motto: You press the button, we do the
rest. The company also invented a flexible film that helped launch the motion
picture industry. Today Eastman is known as the man who brought the joy of
photography to millions around the world.
In 1888 Eastman invented the word ?Kodak? as a distinctive name for a film
camera he was developing. He needed a strong, short, distinctive word that would
also meet foreign trademark laws, and the letter ?K? was a personal favorite of
Eastman?s. According to him, ?It became a question of trying out a great number
of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ?K.? The
word ?Kodak? is the result.?
The first Kodak camera, costing $25, came out in 1888. It came with 100
exposures and the user could send the camera back to Kodak for the film to be
processed and developed. It was not until 1900 that the first of the famous ?Brownie?
cameras was introduced. It cost $1 and used film that sold for 15 cents a roll.
The ?Brownie? camera was easy for anyone to use and it made photography
available to people of all ages.
Eastman succeeded in bringing the Eastman Kodak Company to the forefront of the
photography industry. By 1902, he was ready to begin building his ?dream house.?
Eastman wanted a house like the Root House in Buffalo, N.Y., with its Colonial
Revival-style architecture and light-colored Roman bricks.
Eastman hired architect J. Foster Warner and plans for the Eastman mansion began
in 1902. Although Warner was the principal architect, Eastman remained involved
in every aspect of the construction. He required the use of high quality
materials and paid close attention to detail. The total cost of the construction
was $335,000, and the 35,000-square-foot, 50-room house included state-of-the-art
heating and electricity, telephones, a centralized clock system, and an elevator.
Eastman then hired the premiere New York firm McKim, Mead, and White to design
the interior of the house. Previously, they worked on Andrew Carnegie?s house in
New York and the White House. Mr. Eastman?s mansion was completed in 1905, and
he celebrated with a gala celebration that October.
Eastman was also a very generous man, and during his life he donated more than $100
million to educational and arts institutions, public parks, hospitals, dental
clinics, and charitable organizations around the world. Education interested Mr.
Eastman very much, and he even contacted the presidents of several universities
to ask for the names of young men who could come work for Kodak.
Throughout his life, Eastman donated nearly $20 million to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. The Mechanics Institute, now the Rochester Institute of
Technology, received a gift of $625,000 in 1901. Eastman also gave approximately
$2 million each to Tuskegee Institute and to Hampton Institute, both Southern
and predominantly African-American colleges.
Eastman felt a strong tie to the community of Rochester. He founded the
Community Chest (which later became the local United Way), planned for a school
of music, and pioneered the first employee profit-sharing program in America. At
the time of his death, he left most of his estate, including his house, to the
University of Rochester.
Eastman was a successful business man and a generous philanthropist, yet he
enjoyed his leisure time. Before his retirement in 1925, he worked long hours at
Kodak. After he retired, Eastman pursued adventure in the American West and in
the African jungle.
One of Eastman?s best known trips was his safari to Kenya taken between March
and October 1926. He traveled with his personal doctor and the famous wildlife
researchers and photographers Martin and Osa Johnson.
While in Africa, Eastman met with Carl Akeley, a naturalist and taxidermist from
the United States. Akeley was collecting specimens to begin the African Hall for
the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. These meetings secured
the inclusion of donations from Eastman?s safari for the museum?s collections.
Eastman went on a second safari, up the Nile to Uganda, in 1928. On this trip,
he bagged two of his most highly prized trophies, a white rhinoceros and an
elephant. When he returned to Rochester, Eastman displayed the head of the
elephant in the conservatory of his house. A replica is exhibited in its
original location in the mansion.
Eastman enjoyed his many traveling adventures. After he returned from his second
trip to Africa however, he was diagnosed with a progressive and irreversible
spinal disease. On March 14, 1932, Eastman ended his own life. In a note to
friends, Eastman wrote, ?My work is done. Why wait??
Although he believed his work was done, Eastman?s company continued to expand.
Today Eastman Kodak Company is one of the world?s largest, most successful film
manufacturers.
George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company, is heralded as the father
of popular photography and inventor of motion-picture film. He was born in 1854
in the Central New York village of Waterville. That same year, his father,
George Washington Eastman, established Eastman?s Commercial College in Rochester.
After many trips between Waterville and Rochester, the elder Eastman moved the
family to Rochester in 1860. Two years later, he died suddenly, leaving his
family with few financial resources.
George Eastman left school at age 14 to support his mother, Maria Kilbourn
Eastman, and two older sisters, Ellen and Kate. He first worked at a local
insurance company and then was hired as a junior clerk by the Rochester Savings
Bank.
In 1878, one of Eastman?s colleagues suggested that Eastman, 23, take a camera
on an upcoming vacation with this mother to Santo Domingo. Eastman bought a
photographic outfit, and although he never made the journey, he became fully
engrossed in photography.
The weight, awkwardness, and cost of a photographic outfit soon led Eastman to
experiment on improvements. Unhappy with the excessive work and materials
required to take and develop photographs, Eastman searched for a simpler way to
develop negatives. He spent three years in his mother?s kitchen experimenting
with gelatin emulsions. By 1880, Eastman had invented and patented a dry-plate
coating machine.
In 1881, with the financial backing of Henry Strong, Eastman and Strong formed
the Eastman Dry Plate Company. Eastman, treasurer of his newly formed company,
resigned from the Rochester Savings Bank. In 1884, the Eastman Dry Plate Company
was reincorporated as the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. They then patented
and produced rollable film as an alternative to the glass negative.
Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company in 1892, an organization that
revolutionized photography through simplification. With a series of landmark
innovations, the company created small, easy-to-use cameras like the famous
Kodak camera introduced in 1888 with the motto: You press the button, we do the
rest. The company also invented a flexible film that helped launch the motion
picture industry. Today Eastman is known as the man who brought the joy of
photography to millions around the world.
In 1888 Eastman invented the word ?Kodak? as a distinctive name for a film
camera he was developing. He needed a strong, short, distinctive word that would
also meet foreign trademark laws, and the letter ?K? was a personal favorite of
Eastman?s. According to him, ?It became a question of trying out a great number
of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ?K.? The
word ?Kodak? is the result.?
The first Kodak camera, costing $25, came out in 1888. It came with 100
exposures and the user could send the camera back to Kodak for the film to be
processed and developed. It was not until 1900 that the first of the famous ?Brownie?
cameras was introduced. It cost $1 and used film that sold for 15 cents a roll.
The ?Brownie? camera was easy for anyone to use and it made photography
available to people of all ages.
Eastman succeeded in bringing the Eastman Kodak Company to the forefront of the
photography industry. By 1902, he was ready to begin building his ?dream house.?
Eastman wanted a house like the Root House in Buffalo, N.Y., with its Colonial
Revival-style architecture and light-colored Roman bricks.
Eastman hired architect J. Foster Warner and plans for the Eastman mansion began
in 1902. Although Warner was the principal architect, Eastman remained involved
in every aspect of the construction. He required the use of high quality
materials and paid close attention to detail. The total cost of the construction
was $335,000, and the 35,000-square-foot, 50-room house included state-of-the-art
heating and electricity, telephones, a centralized clock system, and an elevator.
Eastman then hired the premiere New York firm McKim, Mead, and White to design
the interior of the house. Previously, they worked on Andrew Carnegie?s house in
New York and the White House. Mr. Eastman?s mansion was completed in 1905, and
he celebrated with a gala celebration that October.
Eastman was also a very generous man, and during his life he donated more than $100
million to educational and arts institutions, public parks, hospitals, dental
clinics, and charitable organizations around the world. Education interested Mr.
Eastman very much, and he even contacted the presidents of several universities
to ask for the names of young men who could come work for Kodak.
Throughout his life, Eastman donated nearly $20 million to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. The Mechanics Institute, now the Rochester Institute of
Technology, received a gift of $625,000 in 1901. Eastman also gave approximately
$2 million each to Tuskegee Institute and to Hampton Institute, both Southern
and predominantly African-American colleges.
Eastman felt a strong tie to the community of Rochester. He founded the
Community Chest (which later became the local United Way), planned for a school
of music, and pioneered the first employee profit-sharing program in America. At
the time of his death, he left most of his estate, including his house, to the
University of Rochester.
Eastman was a successful business man and a generous philanthropist, yet he
enjoyed his leisure time. Before his retirement in 1925, he worked long hours at
Kodak. After he retired, Eastman pursued adventure in the American West and in
the African jungle.
One of Eastman?s best known trips was his safari to Kenya taken between March
and October 1926. He traveled with his personal doctor and the famous wildlife
researchers and photographers Martin and Osa Johnson.
While in Africa, Eastman met with Carl Akeley, a naturalist and taxidermist from
the United States. Akeley was collecting specimens to begin the African Hall for
the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. These meetings secured
the inclusion of donations from Eastman?s safari for the museum?s collections.
Eastman went on a second safari, up the Nile to Uganda, in 1928. On this trip,
he bagged two of his most highly prized trophies, a white rhinoceros and an
elephant. When he returned to Rochester, Eastman displayed the head of the
elephant in the conservatory of his house. A replica is exhibited in its
original location in the mansion.
Eastman enjoyed his many traveling adventures. After he returned from his second
trip to Africa however, he was diagnosed with a progressive and irreversible
spinal disease. On March 14, 1932, Eastman ended his own life. In a note to
friends, Eastman wrote, ?My work is done. Why wait??
Although he believed his work was done, Eastman?s company continued to expand.
Today Eastman Kodak Company is one of the world?s largest, most successful film
manufacturers.