Rochester – Day 3

It was raining when we woke up, and had been forecast to do so when we went to bed last night, so we planned to visit the Eastman Museum. The rain had stopped by the time we were ready to leave the room, but the roads were still very wet, and heavy rain was predicted for the afternoon, with flash flood warnings, so we drove the 3 km. It was quite a pleasant Route, and we both felt somewhat lazy, and that we were missing out, by driving, rather than riding or walking. However, when we left the museum, it was pouring heavily and we were thankful to be able to drive back to the hotel. The sunny picture of the front of the mansion below was taken on our final day in Rochester, as we drove east to Pittsford, as the rain was so heavy when we left the mansion that I didn’t want to walk around the grounds when we left.

George Eastman was the entrepreneur who founded Kodak. The George Eastman Museum is housed in his Colonial Revival mansion, which he bequeathed to the University of Rochester in 1932, with the desire that it serve as the university president’s residence. However, the 35,000 square-foot mansion was too large for that purpose, and the university donated the mansion and property to a nonprofit which established the world’s first museum of photography on the property, and which opened in 1949. For 40 years, the museum objects were displayed in the mansion, however, in 1989 an addition of 73,000 square feet, more than 70% of which is underground, was constructed and included “climate controlled collection vaults, exhibition galleries, libraries, offices, and photographic conservation and film preservation labs”. The mansion and grounds were then restored to their orignal condition using photographs, and other historical evidence, and more than 85% of the original furnishings on the ground floor were returned to the mansion.

George Eastman was the pioneer of popular photography. He was born in 1854, and moved to Rochester in 1860. Two years later, his father died, leaving him, his mother and two older sisters with few financial resources. George left school at 14 to support the family, working first at an insurance company and then at a bank. When he was 23, a colleague encouraged him to take a camera on his vacation and he became engrossed in photography. However, photographic equipment was heavy and expensive and required special processes to develop the photographs at that time, which led Easton to spend three years experimenting in his mother’s kitchen to invent a new process. With the backing of a local businessman Eastman created easy to use cameras that made photography widely accessible, and developed a flexible film that was critical to launching the motion picture industry.

Eastman was involved in every aspect of his new company, including creating the name about which he wrote “In regard to the word Kodak I can say that it was a purely arbitrary combination of letters, not derived in whole or part from any existing word, arrived at after considerable search for a word that would answer all requirements for a trademark name. The principal of these were that it must be short; incapable of being misspelled so as to destroy its identity: must have a vigorous and distinctive personality; and must meet the requirements of the various foreign trademark laws.”

Eastman, hired a New York City copywriter to write the manual for his first camera, but dissatisfied with the result, he re-wrote the manual himself in a very simple format, rather than in the flowery language of the day, and came up with the slogan: “You push the button, we do the rest”. He also decided not to advertise the camera in photographic journals, but rather advertised in mass-market publications, which was considered a risky, move at the time, but proved to be very successful.

He was very involved in the design of his mansion. Unhappy with the nearly perfect cube that the architect designed for the conservatory, he undertook a renovation which cut the house in half, rolled the back half of the conservatory back by 9 feet on rails, and which cost 50% more than the original cost of building the entire mansion.

The last time I was here we had a tour lead by a docent who was knowledgable and entertaining. The docent has now been replaced by small information boards in each room, and visitors are encouraged to download the Bloomberg Connects app, to listen to recordings about each room. Unfortunately, with an app the back-and-forth that one would get with a docent is missing, and the commentary was rather dry. The benefit was that when I wrote the blog, I was able to refer to information on the app, as well as other sources on the Internet, as well as my memory of the day.

In the late 1920s Eastman was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a progressive and irreversible disease. In 1932 he ended his own life, leaving a note in which he wrote, “My work is done. Why wait?“

After touring the mansion, we toured the three galleries with exhibits from their large collection. This wall showed 1778 powder dye samples out of the over 3000 held by the museum, which were used to make Technicolour films.

The museum has the original lunar landing camera, which was made by Kodak for the purpose, in its collection.

It also has early digital cameras in its collection, but since Kodak did not produce SLR cameras, it produced equipment that could be used to convert SLR cameras from Canon and Nikon into Digital SLR cameras.

Kodak failed to capitalize on its early leading digital photography of declared bankruptcy in 2013. This had a major impact on the economy in Rochester. The company has emerged from bankruptcy to focus on four business areas: Traditional Print, Digital Print, Advanced Material & Chemicals (including Motion Picture) and Brand licensing of consumer products produced by third parties.

We had a delicious lunch in the restaurant in the museum.

After returning to the hotel, we decided to take a walk to see some of additional local sites given that the rain had stopped. In the same block as our hotel, and across the street from the Metropolitan tower we’re boarded up buildings. Within a few blocks of the hotel, we passed additional large abandoned buildings.

This is Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Park. The mural in this park is dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. and also includes two other Rochester citizens: Susan B, Anthony and Frederick Douglass. The artist is Shawn Dunwoody.

The focal point of the park is a sunken concrete plaza containing a 2000 seat, amphitheatre and waterfall. A steel scaffold-like frame was built to allow visitors to view the park from a high level. Unfortunately, the platform was closed while we were there.

We walked around the other side of the Museum of Play. The museum has a large carrousel indoors.

We also explored more of the new residential neighborhood.

The parking garage might be the most attractive I have ever seen. The stairs were wide, bright, and obviously located. At least, as many people were using the stairs as the elevators. The outside of the parking garage is decorated with a colourful rainbow of beams.

We then walked down Union Street observing the homes and businesses that had been built on land reclaimed from filling in 1.7 km of the inner loop. There was excellent cycling infrastructure, pretty gardens, mid rise house, and shops on the main level.

When I was here 10 years ago I took this picture standing on a bridge over the inner loop.

Standing there today it was very hard to imagine what it used to look like. I used Google Streetview to look at how the streetscape changed since I was last there. Pay attention to the white parking garage on the right to orient yourself as the scene changes.

We went to TaiChi for dinner where Michael had Ramen and I had a sushi burrito. They were both delicious.

We passed the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester on the way back. The school has many famous alumni. The school was established by George Eastman.

St Joseph’s Church was constructed between 1843 and 1846, but was destroyed by fire in 1974. A Park was created on the site in the ruins in 1980. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open while we were there.

This is Rochester’s liberty pole. There was a long-standing American tradition of political protest and celebration at liberty poles. The first one on this spot was built in 1846. The current one was completed in 1965 and is 190 feet tall and made of stainless steel. Previous ones had been destroyed by storms. The fountain in the foreground is a reminder of a time in American history when blacks and whites were required to drink from separate drinking fountains.