George Eastman Museum

The George Eastman Museum, also known as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography and cinema museum located on the estate of George Eastman in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, it is the oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives. The institution is a leader in film preservation and photograph conservation, training archivists and conservators from around the world, and houses the 500-seat Dryden Theatre. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

George Eastman (1854-1932) had his mansion built between 1902 and 1905 at 900 East Avenue in Rochester, occupying it from June 1905 until his death. His will granted the University of Rochester a ten-year right of use; the mansion served as residence for university presidents Benjamin Rush Rhees and then Alan Valentine. After World War II, the university donated the property to a trustee foundation in 1948. The museum was chartered in 1947, and George Eastman House opened to the public on November 9, 1949, displaying its core collections in the former public rooms. General Oscar Solbert served as first director, with Beaumont Newhall as curator from 1948 to 1958 and then director until 1971, building one of the world's most important photographic collections. The George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film was first presented in 1955. By 1984, rapid collection growth had produced a $500,000 deficit and critical space shortages. In 1985, Kodak provided an endowment of $13-15 million from sale of its San Francisco office building on condition the museum remain in Rochester, while the Smithsonian Institution was offered title and control that same year if it would leave the Eastman Archives in Rochester and contribute $1 million annually. The museum's expansion facility opened in January 1989, and between 1985 and 1990 the building underwent comprehensive restoration and modernization, with original gardens replanted and new structures added. The name was changed to George Eastman Museum in October 2015. Bruce Barnes was appointed director in September 2012, and Nannette Nocon serves as board chair. The annual budget is approximately $10 million, with an endowment exceeding $35 million as of December 2014.

The museum's holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs and negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present; over 23,000 motion picture films; three million cinematic objects including letters, scripts, musical scores, lobby cards, posters, film stills, and celebrity portraits; more than 16,000 objects of photographic and cinematographic technology; an internationally renowned research collection of books, periodicals, and other materials; and George Eastman's personal effects. The photography collection traces the evolution of the medium as technology, scientific and historical documentation, and personal expression, with more than 14,000 photographers represented including virtually all major figures. It includes original vintage works produced by nearly every process and printing medium. The original collections drew from the Medicus collection of Civil War photographs by Alexander Gardner, Eastman Kodak Company's historical collection, and the Gabriel Cromer collection of nineteenth-century French photography acquired by Kodak in 1939. The museum has since received donations of entire archives, corporate and individual collections, and photographer estates. Contemporary photographers represented include Steve McCurry, Robert Frank, Nickolas Muray, James Nachtwey, Sebastião Salgado, and Manuel Rivera-Ortiz.

The museum possesses one of the world's largest collections of daguerreotypes, including more than 1,000 by Southworth & Hawes. It holds a major collection of nineteenth-century photographs of the American West by photographers including Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and Tim O'Sullivan. The institution organized the groundbreaking exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape in 1975, which helped define the New Topographics genre. The Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center opened in 1996 in nearby Chili, New York, one of only four United States film conservation centers as of 2006, housing rare 35 mm cellulose nitrate prints. That same year, the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation was founded as the first American school teaching restoration, preservation, and archiving of motion pictures, supported by The Louis B. Mayer Foundation. In 1999, the Mellon Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation was launched with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation support to train photograph archivists and conservators globally.

The mansion is a Georgian Revival style residence of more than 3,000 square meters with 50 rooms, constructed between 1902 and 1905 on an estate of more than four hectares. Eastman created a unique urban property encompassing farmland, French formal gardens, stables, greenhouses, and outbuildings. The reinforced concrete structure was fireproof and technologically advanced for its time, featuring an electrical generator, internal telephone network with 21 instruments, central vacuum system, elevator, central clock system, and pipe organ that contributed to the city's musical life until Eastman's death. The classic facade gives way to a modern interior. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark on November 13, 1966, and entered into the National Register of Historic Places. The gardens, approximately 4.2 hectares, have been restored several times and are open to visitors. The Dryden Theatre, with 535 seats, was added during the 1985-1990 renovation and serves as the venue for the George Eastman Award ceremony, with capability to project nitrate films.

The George Eastman Museum is located at 900 East Avenue in Rochester, New York, on the former estate of George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Company. The museum is open to the public and operates as an independent institution with trustee governance. Visitors can tour the historic mansion with its restored gardens, view exhibitions in the expanded facilities opened in 1989, attend screenings at the Dryden Theatre, and access the research library. The site also hosts events including readings and concerts. Educational programs include the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation and the Mellon Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation.