George Eastman Museum

Once the residence of George Eastman, now the George Eastman Museum of International Photography and Film, is one of the most important cultural attractions in 'Rochester'. Eastman, whose father died early leaving the family in poverty, dropped out of school and started working as an office boy at an insurance company at the age of 14, and entered the banking industry at 20. He loved photography since he was young, invented the flexible gelatinous sensitive material commonly known as film, pioneered the era of film photography, and founded the renowned Kodak Company. Edison, with the help of Kodak's film, invented the movie camera. In 1886, Kodak invented a camera with an included roll of film, and Eastman introduced the business model 'You press the button, we do the rest', where users would send back the camera after taking pictures, and the company would take care of developing the photos and then send them back to the users. From then on, photography truly entered the daily lives of ordinary people... He was devoted to philanthropy all his life In 1919, he donated one-third of his Kodak stock holdings to the company's employees to establish a pension and insurance fund. He loved music, and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, which he donated to, is consistently ranked first in classical music education; the University of Rochester Medical School and its affiliated teaching hospital he donated to are ranked the second-largest medical institution in New York State, with a huge campus, and at night one can often hear the hospital's own '120' helicopter flying overhead. Half of Rochester is scattered with various institutions of the University of Rochester Medical School, especially dental institutions. The most famous library of the University of Rochester was also built with his donations In 1932, long-term illness led to his depression, and he chose to commit suicide, leaving the note: 'My work is done - why wait for death?' The Kodak Company, which had dominated film photography for over a century, ultimately failed to embrace the digital age. Behind the towering global headquarters, the chemical plant area is in ruins, with only a few African American youths loitering by the roadside...