"To my friends: My work is done. Why wait? — G.E."

These were the words penned by George Eastman moments before he put a gun to his chest and committed suicide in his second floor bedroom at his Rochester, N.Y., mansion March 14, 1932.

Mention the words "glass-plate negative," "dry plate" and "flexible film" to photographers today, and you might get a funny look. Yet, these were the very things that drove the high school dropout to form the world-famous Eastman Kodak Co., which brought photography to the common man.

While company information and visits to the offices are easy enough, there are no longer tours of the facilities were cameras and film are produced. More enlightening is the 35,000 square foot, 50-room Colonial Revival-style mansion in a prominent area of the city. It is a sightseeing treasure, and unfolds some of the background of the genius that was Eastman.

Greeting visitors on the side front lawn entrance off East Avenue is a statue of a horse looking through an old square camera and a black focus cloth over its head to keep out the light — just like a photographer. The camera points directly at the house.

From 1902 when construction began to the fall of 1905 when the sprawling mansion was completed, Eastman paid $335,000. He had hired architect J. Foster Warner to build the fireproof structure made of steel and reinforced concrete, then hired the same interior design firm that had done the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt.

Involved in every detail of the house, Eastman had state-of the-art heating and electricity, an electric generator, an internal telephone system with 21 stations, an elaborate centralized clock network, built-in vacuum cleaning, a great pipe organ and an elevator.

There was also a network of tunnels used by the servants.

Stepping into the entrance hall a splendid mahogany staircase leads to a mid-landing, then curves around in both directions to reach the second floor on either side of the house. The little crystal balls atop the posts at the base of the stairs are what people used to put in place when their houses were finally paid for and the mortgage ripped up. Eastman, of course, never had a mortgage, and the crystal balls were put in place during construction.

To the right of the foyer is a huge living room, which served as a business center and Eastman's home office. Left of the foyer is a library and a much larger billiard room.

Around and behind the grand staircase is the conservatory that Eastman expanded almost 15 years after the house was completed. Hidden behind latticework on the second and third floors are the pipes for the Aeolian pipe organ. Behind the conservatory is the formal dining room, with a door leading to the kitchen, and another door that conceals the built-in safe where the china and silver were kept.

At the top of the stairs on the second floor Eastman's bedroom was to the right in a front corner of the house. Just outside his bedroom door, beneath a set of front steps leading to the third floor, is a built-in safe. His mother's bedroom was to the left in the other front corner of the house.

Never married, Eastman had a third-floor suite for his niece and her husband (Ellen and George Dryden). There were also quarters for household workers, but Eastman preferred to have most of his personal staff come and go on a daily basis.

He loved the house, and regularly had breakfast by himself in the conservatory. He had a private organist play background music for him every day at breakfast and every evening at dinner.

Then in 1919 he had the house cut in half, put the rear section up on rails and rollers and moved it back 9 feet, changing the conservatory from a square area to a rectangular space for better acoustics. The "void" was filled in without a noticeable trace. This construction magic cost him $750,000. But this was peanuts compared to the great wealth he already had, plus the annual fortune he and his company earned.

Today the house is a National Historic Landmark. Not bad for a guy who had to become the family breadwinner before he was even able to graduate from high school.

He created an urban estate with formal gardens around the house, greenhouses, stables, barns, acres of working farm land, and pastures.

With additions, changes, renovations, and the acquisition of more land, the official name of the complex became the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, and opened to the public in 1949.

With collections growing so fast, space became limited. In the 1980s millions were raised, allowing for a vast archives building. In the complex behind and attached to the house is a cafeteria, gift shop, several theaters, a number of galleries, the library, and multiple areas underground housing a wide array of photographic oriented items.

Decades of collecting have seen the museum's holdings grow to more than 400,000 prints and negatives representing some 14,000 photographers; more than 26,000 motion picture titles, movie posters, film stills, star portraits, and even the original negatives of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind;" more than 16,000 pieces of camera equipment; and a library with more than 50,000 items.

Along with the capital improvements on the grounds, several million dollars was devoted to a restoration of the mansion. With the use of vintage photographs and other historical evidence, the home and its interior were restored to their original condition.

BEGINNING OF EMPIRE

After his father's death a young Eastman had to work to support his mother and two sisters. Yet he was intrigued with picture-taking, and took up photography as a hobby. In 1878 he bought a photographic outfit with camera and the required chemicals to process his pictures. The weight of the cumbersome equipment, along with the complicated and time-consuming processes of developing heavy, glass wet-plate negatives promptly led him to experimenting on improvements. In an effort to "modernize" the method of producing photographic prints — and at the same time greatly reducing costs — he developed a dry-plate process.

He experimented in his mother's kitchen, using her cookie sheets, searching for a simpler, quicker, and more efficient way to develop negatives. That led to the formation of the Eastman Dry Plate Co. in 1880.

But Eastman was not yet wealthy and he needed a financial angel. He found that angel in Henry Alva Strong, who was a roomer at mother Maria Eastman's boarding house. Strong funded Eastman in 1880, providing the necessary capital for the company's early successes.

As an alternative to the glass negative, Eastman's first patent was the roll holder that wound a flexible film, which was to revolutionize the photography industry.

The self-educated inventor created the word "Kodak" as a distinctive name for a film camera he was developing. The letter "K" was a personal favorite of Eastman's. "It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with K. The word 'Kodak' is the result," Eastman was quoted when asked to explain the name.

The letter "K" was also chosen in honor of his mother, whose maiden name was Kilbourn. Perhaps more importantly was the fact "Kodak" could be pronounced the same in just about every country in the world.

In 1888, Eastman perfected the simple Kodak portable box camera that used flexible roll film. It was on the market for $25, with a roll of film good for 100 pictures that came with the camera. Fond of advertising, Eastman came up with the slogan, "You Press the Button, We Do the Rest." He also came up with the idea of Kodak's distinctive yellow packaging.

By 1892, the company was reorganized and renamed the Eastman Kodak Co., with Strong as its president. The future was bright. When asked what his goal was for the company, Eastman said, "To make photography an everyday affair and to make the camera as convenient as the pencil."

The popularity of his camera gained worldwide acclaim, and soon the name Kodak was a household name. By 1898 Eastman's far-reaching empire had made him a millionaire.

At the turn of the century he came out with the "Brownie" camera for just a buck, and used film that cost just 15 cents a roll. The small, easy-to-use camera was mass-produced and earned an international reputation, bringing affordable photography to people everywhere. Kodak quickly became one of the two most recognizable brand names in the world — the other being Coca-Cola.

With regular improvements, more than 700 models of the Brownie were developed, and the popular camera was still being manufactured as late as 1970.

Always thinking photography, he did not want people to look at an image and ask, "What is this photograph of?" Instead, he wanted them to ask, "What is this photograph about?"

A tough, shrewd businessman, Eastman's had two criteria — quality and cost. As he achieved both, he also directed his attention to manufacturing, distribution, and extensive advertising. He pushed the name Kodak so hard people almost forgot Eastman was the founder.

He had the right formula, but needed key people to oversee the multiple operations. When he found the right people he wanted to work for him, he sometimes bought the companies they worked for, and absorbed everything into Kodak.

Like Henry Ford's Model T, and Edison's light bulb, Eastman wanted his inexpensive cameras and film to simplify and improve the life of the common man.

As he attained great success, he gave generously of his wealth, becoming one of the five biggest philanthropists in the country — along with Vanderbilt, DuPont, Carnegie, and Rockefeller. He also made friends with the famous, not the least of which was Thomas A. Edison, for whom Eastman invented motion picture film. Other friends included partners Bausch and Lamb, who for many years made all the lenses for Kodak cameras.

His generosity extended not only to Rochester-based educational and charitable groups ($46 million to the University of Rochester alone), but to other wide-ranging academic institutions as well. He donated some $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the name of "Mr. Smith," plus $2 million each to Tuskegee Institute and to Hampton Institute, both Southern and predominately African-American colleges.

Eastman also shared his fortune with the arts, music, public parks, hospitals, dental clinics, the Red Cross, and charitable organizations around the world. He never asked that anything be named for him. He is credited as pioneering the first employee profit-sharing program in America.

Although a progressive thinker, Eastman wanted to stay with everything connected and related to photography. He turned down many outside investment ideas that were presented for his consideration.

A heavy smoker of Lucky Strikes, Eastman was bed-ridden and suffered from multiple physical ailments toward the end of his life.

Little did his secretary and three attorneys know that it was to be a fateful morning when they were called to Eastman's mansion to have him sign the codicil to his will detailing how his $100 million estate should be given away.

With the paperwork taken care of, and the legal group on their way back to the company offices, a shot rang out before they reached the bottom of the stairs. So well prepared was Eastman for this event, he had everything under the covers on his bed, along with a wet towel he used to cover his chest minimizing the mess.

Acclaimed as the father of modern photography and the inventor of motion picture film, Eastman left a legacy, a mansion, and tangible evidence of his genius. He is buried in a lone grave in a small garden area known as Kodak Park at the main factory. If you are looking for a true "Kodak moment," you'll find it right in Rochester.

IF YOU GO

The George Eastman House is located at 900 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y., 14607-2298. For more information, call 585-271-3361 or visit online www.eastmanhouse.org, www.eastman.org, and www.geh.org.

Tom and Joanne O'Toole are freelance travel writers. To find out more about Tom and Joanne O'Toole and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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