George Eastman House is the oldest photography museum in the world, housed in the former home of Mr. George Eastman, the so-called father of modern photography and founder of Eastman Kodak company. The Museum is also one of the premiere centres of photographic conservation in the world. You can imagine our delight when they decided to join The Commons on Flickr!

Their initial foray includes 3 sets:

The Chusseau-Flaviens collection depicts “social and political figures and events throughout Europe and the colonial empires in the Near East and the Far East” from the 1890s to just before World War I…

  

  

…Messrs. Southworth & Hawes were partners in commercial studio in Boston, primarily shooting daguerreotype portraits. The studio opened in 1843, and closed twenty years later…

…and a small selection of exquisite Autochromes, the first colour photographic process, invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1904.

  

 

In other news, Brooklyn Museum has just uploaded their next installment of their glorious Egyptian lantern slides, this time with a focus on people and life of the time. We’re also excited to be launching the ability to search across all the photos in The Commons! Fuelled by your tagging and other descriptive commentary, we can now all bear witness to brand new emergent collections found only on Flickr, created by you. Some favourites so far include blue and yellow, moustachioed men wearing ties and crowded streets.