COURTESY TORONTO FILM SOCIETY
The George Eastman House, the Rochester, New York, photography and cinema museum, announced today that it will henceforth be known as the George Eastman Museum. They have also launched a new website, eastman.org.
Bruce Barnes, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director, said in a statement,
“The three-part mission of the George Eastman Museum remains leadership in the fields of photography and cinema; preservation and development of our collections, including the historic mansion and gardens; and service to our communities, in Rochester and beyond. Our new name better conveys our institution’s core identity as a dynamic museum with world-class collections in the fields of photography and cinema.”
Founded in 1947 and located inside the estate of the late entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the museum features 450,000 contemporary and historic photographs as well as one of the world’s oldest film archives, with 28,000 films in its collection and film posters in the tens of thousands. The museum—the world’s oldest photography museum—was recently deemed a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark for its collection of photographic and cinematographic technology.
Barnes added in the same release,
“The George Eastman Museum is actively building our collections, with a particular emphasis on photographic and moving image works by contemporary artists from many cultures to complement our great strength in works from the past. At the same time, we are committed to the preservation and interpretation of George Eastman’s estate, a National Historic Landmark, and are currently making a substantial investment in restoration projects for its original structures.”