Creating Legacies: This series explores the intricacies of building enduring family businesses and establishing influential art collections and philanthropic endeavors. Our distinguished speakers will shed light on essential strategies that stand the test of time.
Kathy Connor will provide an overview of the life of George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. Eastman is heralded as the father of popular photography and motion picture film, yet he remains unrecognized compared to the fame of fellow industrialists like Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie or Thomas Edison. This lecture provides background on Eastman’s early years growing up in central and western New York and explains how he got started with photography as a hobby and how it eventually made him his fortune. Eastman was a self-made man and a titan of industry. Marketing to women, children and an emerging middle class, he established a set of values that still exists in today’s consumer culture. Connor is the Retired Curator of the George Eastman Legacy Collection in Rochester.