George Eastman House
Coordinates: 43 ° 9 ′ 7.7 ″ N , 77 ° 34 ′ 49 ″ W.
 Exterior view of the George Eastman House |
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| Data | |
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| place | Rochester , New York (State) , USA |
| Art |
Photo museum and collection
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| architect | J. Foster Warner |
| opening | 1949 |
| management | |
| Website | |
The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York is the world's oldest museum of photography and an important film archive . The museum, which was founded in 1947 and opened in 1949, is located on a stately home that George Eastman , founder of the Eastman Kodak Company , lived in from 1905 until his death in 1932.
history
The house itself was George Eastman as generous Mansion in colonial style on a more than four hectares of land from 1902 to 1905 to build for themselves. In his will he granted the University of Rochester a ten-year right of use. After the Second World War, the university handed the property over to a fiduciary foundation , which conceived the museum operation, implemented it in 1947 and manages it to this day. In 1949 the museum, then known as the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography , was opened to the public. The first director of the George Eastman House was General Oscar Solbert . He was supported by Beaumont Newhall , who from 1948 to 1958 as curator and from 1958 to 1971 as museum director was able to build one of the most important photographic collections in the world.
The first George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film was presented in 1955, initially only honoring former greats of silent film .
On November 13, 1966, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark and entered on the National Register of Historic Places .
Between 1985 and 1990 the building was extensively restored and modernized. In the course of this, the originally existing gardens and new buildings were created on the site, through which the museum offer could be expanded. So was u. a. With the Dryden Theater, a cinema with 535 seats opened, in which nitrate films are also shown. The cinema is now the location of the George Eastman Awards ceremony . A technical exhibition and a specialist library have also been added. Events such as readings or concerts complement the museum offer.
The building houses The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, a leading institution and training center for film and photo preservation, restoration and archiving.
The collection
The museum now houses more than 400,000 photographs and negatives, over 23,000 films and over three million film stills (i.e. photos of scenes that were taken during filming or production photos that document filming), as well as 43,000 other publications and more than 25,000 technical exhibits. The museum's collection includes almost all of the great photographers from the past 100 years. Famous contemporary photographers represented in the collection are Steve McCurry , Robert Frank , Nickolas Muray , James Nachtwey , Sebastião Salgado and Manuel Rivera-Ortiz . The foundation of the museum is the collection of the French photographer Gabriel Cromer , which was acquired by the Eastman Kodak Company in 1939.
Individual evidence
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↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.
Eastman, George, House on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.
