George Eastman

George Eastman
International Portrait Gallery

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George Eastman
Film: North side of the 6800 block of Hollywood Boulevard
George Eastman
Film: West side of the 1700 block of Vine Street
Inventor
Born July 12, 1854 in Waterville, NY
Died March 14, 1932 of suicide in Rochester, NY

George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, was a genius of the photographic industry, who gave away more than $75,000,000 in a lifetime of philanthropy.

It was Eastman who made the camera an effective instrument for the amateur "as convenient as a pencil" and on that achievement he built his $200,000,000 industry.

It was his transparent film that enabled Edison to perfect the kineoscope—forerunner of the present motion picture.

He developed the dry plate which simplified the mechanics of photography; then, bromide paper, now a standard of the industry; the roll film and the roll-film holder to make photography an every-day delight of life.

Eastman was born at Waterville, Oneida county, New York, on July 12, 1854. He was forced to leave school at 14 years of age to support his mother two sisters.

Eastman loved music, though he called himself a "musical moron," and much of his philanthropy was directed toward the development of an appreciation of music in others.

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