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Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires
They Built by Richard S. Tedlow, New York, Harper Collins,
2001, 72–117.
I Married Adventure: The Lives and Adventures of Martin and
Osa Johnson, by Osa Johnson. New York: J. B. Lippincott
Company, 1940. Sassy and humanizing account of Eastman’s
two safaris.
“Eastman of Rochester: Photographic Pioneer,” by Allan Fisher.
National Geographic 106 no. 3 (September 1954).
Images and Enterprise: Technology and the American Photo-
graphic Industry, 1839–1925, by Reese V. Jenkins. Johns
Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology. Baltimore, MD,
and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975. ISBN:
0-8018-1588-6. An excellent history of the photographic
industry in the US which naturally concentrates on its leader,
George Eastman.
Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839–
1889, by Robert Taft. New York: Macmillan, 1938. Reprint.
Gloucester, MA: P. Smith, 1965. Chapter 19: In describing
the Goodwin/Ansco v. Eastman Kodak Company patent suit
over the invention of fi lm, Taft functions as advocate for the
underdog.
The Encyclopedia of New York State, Peter Eisenstadt, editor in
chief, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2005.
Encyclopedia of World Trade: soon to be published with an entry
on George Eastman.
Philanthropists and Their Legacies by Carol G. Traub, Minne-
apolis, The Oliver Press, 1997, 103–118, “George Eastman:
The Click Heard ‘Round the World.”
The University of Rochester Library Bulletin 26 no. 3 (Spring
1971). The whole issue is devoted to reminiscences of George
Eastman by people who knew him.
“Mr. Eastman Builds a House,” by Elizabeth Brayer. The Brigh-
ton-Pittsford Post (19 April 1979 to 3 April 1980). Newspaper
articles on Eastman’s building projects and personal life.
Scrapbook of articles available at the University of Rochester
Library.

Works by George Eastman:
Chronicles of an African Trip, by George Eastman. Privately
printed, 1927. Eastman’s fi rst journey (1926) to East Africa,
undertaken at age 72, as recorded in letters to his secretary.
Illustrated.
Chronicles of a Second African Trip, by George Eastman. Edited
by Kenneth M. Cameron. Rochester, NY: The Friends of the
University of Rochester Libraries, 1987. A follow-up safari
in 1927 recorded in previously unpublished letters. Patents
Received by Eastman:
Method and apparatus for coating plates for use in photograph,
by George Eastman. UK 2967, 22 July 1879 and US 226503,
13 April 1880.

Works for young adults and children
George Eastman and the Early Photographers by Brian Coe.
London, Priority Press, 1973. Excellent introduction for adults
as well. Well illustrated
George Eastman: The Kodak Camera Man by Carin T. Ford, New
Jersey, Enslow Publishers, Inc. 2004.
George Eastman by Susan Bivin Aller, Minneapolis, Lerner
Publications Company, 2004.
George Eastman, Young Photographer by Joanne Landers Henry.
Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1959. Out of print.
Click! A story about George Eastman by Barbara Mitchell,
Minneapolis, Carolrhoda Books, 1986. Errors in facts and
dates.

EATON, THOMAS DAMANT (1800–1871)
English
Thomas Eaton was born on 19 January 1800, the only
son of Thomas and Mary Eaton (nee Damant). He was
educated at Norwich Grammar School and later contin-
ued his father’s silk merchant’s business.
Along with his literary, artistic and scientifi c interests,
he was known as a musician and music critic. He retired
from business in 1846 to devote himself to painting and
photography.
His fi rst photograph, of a Norwich church, was taken
in 1845. He showed a further view of Norwich in the
1852 Society of Arts London exhibition, and three in
the Norwich Photographic Society’s 1856 show. He
was a member of the Photographic Society of London
and President of the Norwich Photographic Society and
helped organise their impressive 1856 exhibition, which
had an entry of over 500 images.
He used the calotype process and later wet-collo-
dion to produce pictures of family, friends, landscape
and architecture, which were mostly made in his home
city. In the early and mid 1850’s he contributed articles
concerning photography to both Notes and Queries and
the Journal of the Photographic Society.
The Eaton family were bound up with civic life in
Norwich, Thomas was a member of the City Council
and awarded the honor of freedom of the city.
Ian Sumner

ECONOMICS AND COSTS
Photography became commercially viable at a diffi cult
economic conjuncture. The recession of the early 1840s
deeply effected both Europe and the USA promoting
autarchy and protectionism which in turn restricted the
circulation of materials and methodologies in the most
photographically advanced countries: Britain and France.
In the USA early adoption of the daguerreotype process
was favoured by the large unemployed masses. Undoubt-
edly the profession attracted so many since in the 1850s,
photography was seen to represent a future in which huge
fortunes could be made, and quickly. As in most similar
instances, this was true only in a very few occurrences.
While serious practitioners spent a few months learning
how to make good daguerreotypes, many started com-
pletely untrained, tainting the profession’s reputation.
In any case, with the rapid expansion in the number of
practitioners, fi nal quality and revenues suffered, and
mass merchandising was fi nally born.

1840s and 1850s
The fi rst commercial studios opened in New York in
1840, soon followed by London and Paris. For £150

EASTMAN, GEORGE


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