University of Rochester - Interpres Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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GEORGE EASTMAN

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aaenrge Oliastmun. N tl1e years to come, when this volume of the INTERPRES, our fondest hope, shall have been claimed by oblivion, and our broad campus shall have become far too narrow to accommodate the host of buildings and the throngs of students who shall follow in our footsteps up the marble stair of learning, one imperishable link shall survive to give us title to memory and fame, and that will be the name of Eastman. On the west side of the campus, opposite Sibley, there stands to-day a new structure and this embodiment of all that is physical and biological was made possible by the man whose name it bears. V George Eastman was bor11 in Waterville, New York, on july 12, 1854, and in 1861 removed with his parents to this city, where he has since resided. His father was George W. Eastman, the proprietor of the Eastman Commercial College of Rochester, but he died when his son was six years of age. Thus it was from his mother, Maria Eastman, that l1e received his early training. Mr. Eastman attended the public and private schools of this city until he was fourteen years old and it was at that age, too, that he embarked in the World of business, serving first in the capacity of oflice boy to one Cornelius Waydell, an insurance agent of Rochester. After a year's work in this position, he was trans- ferred to tl1e insurance oliice of Buell and Brewster and later to that of Buell and Hayden. In 1877, he became clerk in the Rochester Savings Bankg rising to first assistant bookkeeper, which position he resigned in 1881. During these early years of business activity, Mr. Eastman became interested in the photographic art and spent his leisure moments in an attempt to perfect the dry plate, carrying on this work with such success that he found a ready market for this product through one of the New York stock houses. His success resolved him to pin his faith to photography and going into partner- ship With Henry A. Strong of this city, he planted the seed of a mighty corpora- tion under the name of the Eastman Dry Plate Company and on account of the foresight and business acumen of Mr. Eastman, this little seed has spread its roots into every fibre of the heart of the business world. Film and the Kodak were made the foundation stones for a larger effort and they soon broadened the original single floor of a small building into the host of structures which houses the East- man Kodak Company to-day. ' A Many inventions and improvements which have gone hand in hand with tl1e development of the Kodak have been from the brain and ingenuity of Mr. Eastman. He invented the first plate-coating machine, patented 188og the 'drst commercially successful rollable film, patented 1884, the original Kodak camera, patented 18883 and tl1e first machine for making rollable transparent film, patented 1890. In 1900, the French Government conferred upon him the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Mr. Eastman is president of the Eastman Kodak Company, managing director of Kodak, Limited, and a director in Eastman 5