George Eastman was your average teenager. He was a high school dropout, judged "not especially gifted" when measured against the academic standards at the time. His family was poor but he took it upon himself to support his two sisters and his widowed mother, one of the sisters were severely handicapped. At the age of 14, he began his career as an office boy in an insurance company. Soon after, he was a clerk in a local bank.
When Eastman was 24, he made plans for a vacation to Santo Domingo. When a co-worker suggested he make a record of the trip, Eastman bought a photographic outfit with…