The George Eastman House is the world’s oldest museum of photography, occupying the former residence of George Eastman, inventor of roll film and founder of the Eastman Kodak Company.  The Museum opened in 1949, and to the present day has been known for its archives of photography and motion pictures; it is also known as a leader in film preservation and photograph conservation, playing a role in the development of and education in those fields.  The Eastman house and surrounding estate, donated to the University of Rochester on the owner’s passing in 1932, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

The Museum’s original collection included the Medicus collection of Civil War photography by Alexander Gardner, the Eastman Kodak Company’s historical collection, and the large Gabriel Cromer collection.  In the decades since, the collection grew exponentially, such that in the 1980s the Museum constructed a 73,000 square foot archives building, which opened to the public in 1989.  The Museum now houses over 400,000 photographs and negatives, 23,000 films and over 5 million film stills, 43,000 publications and over 25,000 pieces of film technology.

In 1996 and 1997, respectively, the Eastman Museum opened centers for education in film conservation (Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in Chili, NY) and motion picture preservation (L. Jeffery Selznick School of Film Preservation).  Also, in 1999 the Museum established a residency fellowship for the top film archivists in the country.  Additional points of interest include the estate’s recently restored 12.5-acre historic gardens and the Dryden Theater, which showcases films from the Museum’s expansive motion picture archives.