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George Eastman Legacy Collection Case Study

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1.0. GEORGE EASTMAN LEGACY
The George Eastman Legacy Collection comprises artifacts and records relating to the life and career of George Eastman. The collection consists of Eastman’s restored historic home, furnishings, decorative arts, and related artifacts, as well as substantial holdings of his personal and business correspondence, private library, photographs, negatives, films, and related personal items.The more than 200,000 objects in the collection fall into the following areas: 1.1. House, furnishings, and decorative arts
The 35,000-square-foot Colonial Revival mansion built for George Eastman is furnished with original, reproduction, and period furnishings and decorative arts. These artifacts include textiles such as oriental carpets, …show more content…

Among the personal letters are a twelve-year correspondence with Booker T. Washington; letters from photographers Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz and explorers Osa and Martin Johnson; and letters from four US presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The business correspondence describes the development of the products and processes of the Eastman Kodak Company and provides insight into the photographic and motion picture industries in the United States. The collection also consists of forty scrapbooks kept by the Eastman Kodak Company publicity department outlining its activities from the late 1880s until 1932, souvenirs from business trips and vacations, awards, Eastman family memorabilia, and items relating to the Eastman Commercial College, a business school started by George Eastman’s …show more content…

Assisted by landscape architect Alling Stephen DeForest (1875–1957), Eastman transformed the farmland into a unique urban estate that integrated a working farm with informal gardens and elegant formal gardens. More gardens were added in 1916 when he bought the adjacent property to the west and commissioned architect Claude Bragdon to do the design.
Today, the George Eastman Museum landscape collection comprises lawns, trees, ornamental shrubs, vines, and five restored or adapted garden areas planted with perennials, bulbs, annuals, and ground covers typically grown during Eastman’s residency (1905–1932). Historic buildings, structures, and architectural elements such as the Loggia, Grape Arbor, Pergola, sunken oval lily pool, and seventeenth-century Venetian wellheads are also part of this collection.
The landscape collection is carefully restored, preserved, and interpreted for the public by museum staff, volunteers, and docents as it relates both historically and horticulturally to George Eastman. Preservation and restoration plans for this collection are based on estate photos taken between 1902 and 1932, correspondence, plant lists, and original architectural drawings and plans of the property held in the George Eastman Legacy

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