804
to be unloaded, developed and printed. The reloaded
camera was then returned to its owner, together with
a set of prints. The Kodak system was summed up by
Eastman’s famous advertising slogan—“You Press the
Button, We do the Rest.” For the fi rst time, anyone (as
long as they could afford the 5 guineas which the Kodak
cost) could become a photographer.
Originally, “Kodak” was used only as a name for
Eastman’s detective camera; only later did it become
generally adopted as a designation for the company’s
products. The success of the Kodak can be gauged
from the fact that in May 1892, the company formally
changed its American name to the Eastman Kodak
Company. In Britain, the Eastman Photographic Mate-
rials Company had been set up in 1889 to manufacture
and sell Eastman’s products outside North and South
America. From 1891, at their new factory in Harrow,
they manufactured fi lm and paper and developed and
printed customers fi lms. In 1898, refl ecting the change
which had already taken place in America, the British
company changed its name to Kodak Limited. By this
date, other European companies had been established,
wholly owned by the British Company— Kodak Gmbh
in Germany in 1896, Eastman Kodak S.A.F. in France in
- Belgium, Holland and Austria/Hungary followed
in 1899, then Russia and Australia in 1900 and Italy in - By the outbreak of the First World War, Kodak
had offi ces and branches all over the world.
The introduction of a range of Kodak cameras, the
successful manufacture of fl exible celluloid rollfi lm and,
later, daylight loading fi lm cartridges, transformed the
company’s fortunes. What had been a comparatively
successful photographic manufacturer now became a
worldwide business phenomenon. By the mid-1890s,
over one hundred thousand Kodak cameras had been
sold and the pace of growth showed no signs of slowing
down. The word Kodak entered popular usage as a verb
as well as a noun as people carrying Kodaks “Kodaked”
everything in sight. As early as 1890, Photography
magazine had correctly prophesied: “The word will very
likely develop verbal, adjectival and adverbial forms
as ‘“I am going to Kodak,’ ‘This is a Kodak negative,’
‘This picture looks Kodakky’.” Other manufacturers,
too, were eager to seize on the popularity of the Kodak
name but Eastman jealously guarded the integrity of his
trade name and the company stamped down hard on any
perceived misuse. In 1898, for example, the company
obtained an injunction against the Kodak Cycle Co
Ltd., preventing them from using the name Kodak in
connection with any of their products. Similar court
cases took place all over the world. As the company’s
advertisements repeatedly reminded customers: “If it
isn’t an Eastman, it isn’t a Kodak.”
The revolution begun in 1888 with the introduction
of the Kodak, took another giant step forward in 1900
with the appearance of the Brownie camera. With the
Kodak, Eastman had attempted, in his own words to:
“...furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has
suffi cient intelligence to point a box straight and press
a button...with an instrument which altogether removes
from the practice of photography the necessity for...any
special knowledge of the art.” With the Brownie camera,
costing just fi ve shillings (one dollar), the fi nancial as
well as the technical constraints on photography were
fi nally removed. One hundred thousand Brownies were
sold in 1900 alone.
In creating and satisfying a huge, previously un-
tapped, market for popular photography Eastman was to
create one of the biggest business empires the world had
ever seen. All over the world, the word Kodak became
as instantly recognisable as that other great symbol
of American commercial imperialism, Coca-Cola. In
1898, Commerce magazine predicted: “The year 1888
will rank in the annals of photography as the date of the
introduction of the Kodak.” The passage of one hundred
years has only served to reinforce this prediction.
Colin Harding
See also: Camera Design 6: Kodak 1888–1900; and
Eastman, George.Further Reading
Ackerman, Carl W., George Eastman, Houghton Miffl in,1930.
Brayer, Elizabeth, George Eastman, Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1996.
Collins, Douglas, The Story of Kodak, Harry N. Abrams, 1990.
Jenkins, Reese V., Images and Enterprise: Technology and the
American Photographic Industry, 1839 to 1925, Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1975.KOREA
By the mid-nineteenth century the Yi Dynasty had ruled
Korea since 1392 and a policy of ‘no contact’ with for-
eigners had been adopted. A Russian fl eet visited the port
of Wonsan in 1856 and tried in vain to open a dialogue
with the local offi cials. In 1866 the still deeply conserva-
tive regime became concerned over the increasing number
of Christian converts and instituted a wholesale massacre.
A number of French priests were also killed and, as a
result, seven French warships sailed to Kanghwa Island,
close to Seoul. When negotiations broke down, the French
looted Kanghwa city but were driven off after suffering
signifi cant casualties. The same year an American ship,
the USS General Sherman, tried to open commercial
relations. Misunderstandings arose, and when the ship
became grounded in the shallow Taedong River, all on
board were massacred and the ship was burnt.
Taking stock: Did any of these events give rise to
photographic opportunities? The writer has seen one
carte de visite portrait, from a Shanghai Chinese stu-