George Eastman, American Inventor

This 1915 color portrait of Eastman was an early attempt at color photography by John George Capstaff, a researcher at Kodak. George Eastman (1854-1932) was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form. In 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, New York. It was one of the first firms to mass-produce standardized photography equipment. The company also manufactured the flexible transparent film, devised by Eastman in 1889, which proved vital to the subsequent development of the motion picture industry. He was a major philanthropist. In his final two years, Eastman was in intense pain, caused by a degenerative disorder affecting his spine. In 1932, Eastman died by suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?

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1854 Disorder Eastman Entrepreneur Flexible Innovator Kodak Philanthropist Researcher Standardized Suicide Transparent

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