Kodak Historical Collection #003
Scope and Contents
The Kodak Historical Collection #003 is organized into six series: Speeches, Corporate Papers, Products, Paper Mills and Paper Support Divisions, Recordak, Divisions. A searchable database for Series I: Speeches can be accessed using a link below. The Corporate Papers consists of eleven sub-series which describe the financial and organizational structures, as well as the development of local, national, international factories and stores. The third series, Products, documents the items made by Kodak beginning in the 1880s. Product descriptions also include press releases, press kits, and photographs about new products released and promoted by Kodak. This series is subdivided into seven subseries that include large amounts of material related to camera, film and paper products. The Paper Mills and Paper Support Divisions constitutes a significant portion of the collection. Descriptions of products, building construction to house the expanding divisions, selected lists of employees, organizational charts, photographs of open houses and parties can all be found in this series. The five series: Recordak documents Kodak's expansion into the microfilm industry in the mid-twentieth century. This series include photographs of products and product descriptions, company locations, and promotional materials. The final series is Divisions and most major divisions and departments of Kodak are listed and described in alphabetical order. The materials in Boxes 102-185 include materials that relate to the first five series as well as Divisions. Product descriptions and promotional materials for the late 1990s and early 2000s can be found in these later boxes.
For further information, or if you would like to contribute to this descriptive guide to the collection, please contact the department: rarebks@library.rochester.edu.
Creator
- Eastman Kodak Company (Organization)
Dates
- Creation: 1854-2006
Language of Materials
English
Extent
221 box(es) (221 boxes, 2 oversized files, and 138 volumes)
Access
The Kodak Historical Collection #003 is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.
Use
In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested by contacting the Eastman Kodak Company. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Eastman Kodak Company donated the Kodak Historical Collection #003, as they so named it, to the Rush Rhees Library in 2004. A second large component of the donation, that of the Kodak Research Libraries, was received in 2006. Since that time, additional smaller segments of historical records have also been received.
Preferred Citation
[Item title, item date], Kodak Historical Collection #003, D.319, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Arrangement
Series 1. Speeches
Series 2. Corporate Papers
Subseries 1. Correspondence
Subseries 2. Financial Records
Subseries 3. Executives and Management Papers
Subseries 4. History and Development of Eastman Kodak Company
Subseries 5. Industrial Relations
Subseries 6. Legal Records: unprocessed
Subseries 7. Meeting Minutes and Reports
Subseries 8. Materials related to George Eastman
Subseries 9. Rochester Area Operations
Subseries 10. National and International Operations
Subseries 11. Kodak Centennial
Series 3. Products
Subseries 1. Market Research
Subseries 2. Product Development
Subseries 3. Camera Models
Subseries 4. Film
Subseries 5. Paper
Subseries 6. Product Lists
Subseries 7. Price Lists
Series 4. Paper Mills and Paper Support Divisions
Series 5. Recordak
Series 6. Divisions
Please note the materials in Boxes 102-185 do not necessarily relate to the Series: Divisions. These boxes more closely reflect the original order of the collection, as it was donated in 2006.
Series 7: Kodak Research Laboratories
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
Processing Information
This collection has been processed in several phases. The first began after the initial group of materials was donated in 2006. At that time the processor's initials were EDV, and the boxes became labeled with those letters to distinguish them from boxes processed by a second staff member. To facilitate access to the collection three initial inventories were made available to researchers. Each had item level description. These descriptions included one for the Kodak Research Laboratories part of the collection which at the time of transfer was housed at the university's off-site storage facility. Beginning in 2012, a second processing phase began. The collection was rehoused and placed in new acid free boxes and folders, and the initial inventories were altered to bring similar topics together. The original inventories remain intact, to facilitate use of the collection by researchers familiar with these previous versions. As of 2017, the first filing cabinet described in the original inventory, and 3 of 4 drawers in the second cabinet have been transferred to the department for further processing, and are described below.
Further processing work was done on the collection in 2022 and 2023. The first of these stages was to integrate the indexed information from the Kodak Speech Files database back into this finding aid. These details are found in item- or file-level notes in the first series, where each of the indexed items has been listed. The second, ongoing phase, will include the addition of item-level description of the audiovisual material belonging to the collection. RBSCP is currently in the process of having these materials digitized, with the goal of making them available for streaming online.
Please contact the department for more information.
Subject
- Eastman Kodak Company (Organization)
- Title
- Kodak Historical Collection #003
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
- Date
- undated
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2021-2022: In 2021, work began to re-integrate information from the Kodak Historical Collection #003 Speech Files database into this finding aid. Additional work was done to clarify the arrangement of Series V, VI, and VII, but may not be complete. Researchers with questions should contact RBSCP.
Library Details
Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library
