George Eastman (1854–1932) businessman
Born in Waterville, New York, Eastman moved to Rochester with his family as a young boy. The death of his father forced him to leave school at age 14 and find work as a messenger. While working in that capacity, he studied accounting in the evenings and gradually worked his way up to the position of clerk in a Rochester bank. But it was not until his first planned vacation that he became interested in photography.
He bought his first camera for a vacation that was never to take place. The large, cumbersome camera he purchased intrigued him, however, and he decided to improve upon the design of the photographic plates that were until that time covered with gelatin. By 1880, he had devised a process for dry plates and opened up shop in Rochester to manufacture them for sale to other camera manufacturers, initially operating as a partnership called the Eastman Dry Plate Co. After manufacturing plates for several years, he hit upon the idea of producing film on a roll, which in turn would help make cameras smaller. He began producing film in 1885. Three years later, he produced the first Kodak camera, which was unique for being able to be operated with the click of a simple button. The trademark name was registered and quickly became synonymous with photography itself.
The original camera had film installed capable of taking 100 pictures. The price was $25. When the customer used the entire roll of film, it was returned to the factory, where the film was developed and the camera reloaded before being returned to its owner. Previous partnerships gave way to the Eastman Co. in 1889 and finally the Eastman Kodak Co. in 1892. Eastman served as chairman of the company’s board from 1925 to 1932.
From the beginning, Eastman emphasized MASS PRODUCTION combined with low costs so that he could reach as wide a market as possible. He was also much more generous to his employees than many other industrialists of the period. As early as 1899, he began distributing a portion of his own profit to his employees. He later established a program called the “wage dividend” that paid each employee a percentage equivalent to the common stock dividends above his or her salary. After World War I, he gave one-third of his stock holdings to his employees. The gift was worth about $110 million.
Eastman Kodak Company became the largest American producer of cameras and film until challenged by the Polaroid Co., founded by Edwin LAND, and later by imports, mostly from Japan. Eastman remained a generous philanthropist throughout his life. He was a major benefactor to the University of Rochester, M.I.T., Hampton Institute, and Tuskegee Institute. The University of Rochester was the main beneficiary, especially its Eastman School of Music. He died in 1932.
Further reading
- Brayer, Elizabeth. George Eastman: A Biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
- Swasy, Alecia. Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company. New York: Random House, 1997.
- Tedlow, Richard S. Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built. New York: HarperBusiness, 2001.
