George Eastman | |
|---|---|
 Eastman in 1917 | |
| Born | July 12, 1854 Waterville, New York, U.S. |
| Died | March 14, 1932 (aged 77) Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Ashes buried at Eastman Business Park (Kodak Park) |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, inventor, philanthropist |
| Known for |
|
| Signature | |
 | |
George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time.[1] Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry.
Eastman was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman School of Music, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and schools of dentistry and medicine at the University of Rochester and Eastman Dental Hospital at University College London, and making large contributions to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the construction of several buildings at the second campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the Charles River, and Tuskegee University and Hampton University, two historically black universities in the South. With interests in improving health, he provided funds for clinics in London and other European cities to serve low-income residents.
In his final two years, Eastman was in intense pain caused by a disorder affecting his spine. On March 14, 1932, he shot himself in the heart, leaving a note which read, "To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?"[2]
Eastman is regarded as one of the most influential and well-known residents of Rochester, New York.[3] He has been commemorated on several college campuses and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the George Eastman Museum has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
- ^ Tiffany, Kaitlyn (July 2021). "The Rise and Fall of an American Tech Giant". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
- ^ Peers, Juliette (2016), "The Lindsay Family (1870–1958)", Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, London: Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781135000356-rem1589-1, ISBN 978-1-135-00035-6, archived from the original on November 6, 2021, retrieved January 20, 2021
- ^ Lahman, Sean (May 25, 2021). "George Eastman, who changed the world, still the titan of Remarkable Rochesterians". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved January 8, 2023.