When Eastman Kodak finally disbands as a business – the even seems no longer an “if” proposition – it will mark the end of an era. George Eastman’s company at its height was synonymous with photography – think “Kodak Moments” – in the 1990s, and before that was a player in the development of photographic and motion picture film. Ironically enough, Kodak even developed in 1991 some of the first commercially available digital cameras, the same ones that would lead to its undoing two decades later. But no matter what happens, the company’s legacy, formed over the course of more than a century, will endure.

On this day, April 24, in 1888 the Eastman Kodak company was formed by George Eastman, with the goal to democratize the process of photography. Eastman first started in the photography dry-plate business, growing it to a $200,000 corporation, before developing a thin, lightweight film that could be placed in pocket-size camera and taken out later for exposure. Kodak brought inexpensive, easy-to-use cameras to every household. Its motto was “You press the button – we do the rest.”

Kodak had the lead in digital camera production as well, but on that technology the company’s management faltered. Nobody at the top levels conceived that digital photography would supplant hard prints — and when they did, Kodak was slow to react. An insistent hanging on to outmoded ideas brought about attempts at hybridization with Photo CD and similar products, but consumers flocked to technologies that did not need any kind of physical storage of photographs, and Kodak fell.