George Eastman was born on July 12, 1854 in Waterville, New York. His parents were George Washington Eastman and Maria Kilbourn Eastman. He had three sisters; their names were Emma Kate, Ellen Maria, and Meagan Deaton. After his father founded the Eastman Commercial College in 1854 the whole family moved to Rochester, New York in 1860. Two years after the family moved his father died and he made the sacrifice to leave high school to help pay the bills for his mother and sisters. At the time he was 14 years old and started working at an office as someone that would go and run errands for older workers.
In 1874 George started to become interested in photography. Fortunately he thought that having to carry more than 100 pounds of equipment was absurd, just to take a few pictures. In 1884 George Eastman patented a photo-emulsion that was coated on rolls of paper. Instead of having to carry heavy glass plates, a photographer could just carry paper film that was rolled on a spool. Four years later Eastman got a patent for his roll-film camera. The new camera cost $25 and also came with a 100-picture roll of film. He called his new invention a Kodak.
The owner of the camera could send in the camera to Eastman’s factory in Rochester, New York and he would develop the film for them and reload the film for only $12 dollars, which I believe to be very cheap for developing and reloadng. Because of the invention of the camera, many Americans started to take photos. It also started to make it possible for photographs to be taken for news. By the year 1896 100 cameras had been sold, but Eastman wanted the world of photography to reach the more common Americans so he invented the Brownie in 1900. The Brownie only cost 1 dollar.I think that the invention of the camera was critical to many famous news events being captured. I mean if Eastman had not invented this new type of film, we might still be carrying around 100 lbs. of equipment just to take a picture. I also believe that the story of Eastman shows that sometimes people with a hard life can still invent something that can change the world. It shows you that no matter how hard your life is that you can turn it around if you have the right attitude. I also think that the history book does not give enough credit to Eastman, with paper rolled around a spool he single handedly changed the face of photography!
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