Cooper Hewitt says...
Founded in Rochester, New York, Eastman Kodak is a producer of photographic equipment and film. In 1879, George Eastman traveled to London to patent a plate-coating machine, and a year later began the commercial manufacture of dry plates. The Eastman and Strong Dry Plate Company was founded in 1881 with Henry Strong. By 1883, the company began manufacturing film in rolls, and in 1888 introduced the Kodak camera. The company named changed to Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884, and in 1889 was known as simply the Eastman Company. Since 1892, it has been known as the Eastman Kodak Company. During most of the twentieth century, the company held a dominant position as a photographic film producer. However, Kodak was slow to transition to new digital imaging technologies for the consumer and business markets, so began struggling by the late 1990s as film sales started to decline. Declaring bankruptcy in 2012, the company reorganized with a focus on commercial printing and imaging, and has devoted a research arm to developing new imaging and printing technologies for the corporate market.
