Beschreibung:

Lot of 3. TNS, Rochester (NY), Jan. 29, 1920. On Eastman Kodak Company letterhead and signed Geo. Eastman. With a 3.5 x 4.5 card printed with New York Yacht Club at top, with manuscript note signed A.M. MacDonald. "I enclose letter ... from Mr. Eeastman received this morning." Although short, Eastman sent an interesting note: "Thank you very much for your letter.... It seems to me that institutions like Technology are going to have the very widest influence on the industrial future of this country." George Eastman (1854-1932) patented roll film and its use popularized photography by amateurs. This invention also inspired motion picture film, for which Eastman received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Having never married (and thus having no heirs) Eastman was a major philanthropist throughout his life, with a major part of his wealth going to the University of Rochester and MIT - in line with his view of "Technology." ANS, 2pp approx. 4 x 5.5 in., Washington (DC), Jan. 12, 1917 on Shoreham Hotel note paper. Signed with full name George Foster Peabody. A note in which Peabody extends his sympathy for Wiley's recent illness and says, "I trust that your strength will return in due course ot its full measure." George Foster Peabody (1852-1938) became involved in investment banking through a friendship with Spencer Trask, and eventually handled most of the railroad investments of the company. Trask was also president of Edison Electric Illuminating, and when this company was merged with others to become General Electric, Peabody became a member of the Board. Later in life he became a social activist and philanthropist, especially actively supporting African-American education. He became involved in the preservation of the spa at Warm Springs, Georgia, and invited his friend Franklin Delano Roosevelt there in the mid-1920s to see if the warmer waters would ease his paralytic symptoms. The rest, as they say, is history at Warm Springs, when FDR purchased it and turned it into a full rehab center. TLS, 1p, New York, Jan. 14, 1936. On letterhead of and signed by Thomas J. Watson, inviting one of Louis Wiley's sisters to be the guest of he and his wife at the Society of the Genesee annual dinner. With cover also printed with Watson's name and address. Thomas John Watson (1874-1956) was CEO of IBM and helped grow the company into the powerhouse it was through most of the 20th century. Watson also filed for a US Trademark on his motto, THINK, which graces walls, notebooks, even a company periodical at IBM. Louis Wiley was born in Homell, Steuben County, NY in 1869. The family moved shortly after to Mt. Sterling, KY, then to Ft. Wayne, IN. Even as a child, he left an impression on all with whom he came in contact as energetic, enthusiastic and always trying to do his best. He decided in childhood that he wanted to be in the newspaper business. His father died when he was 17, and the family moved to Rochester, where he began working for the Union and Advertiser, and soon moved to the Post Express, while also publishing his own paper, Jewish Tidings. By the age of 26, he decided to try his luck in the "Big Apple." So, with a pile of recommendations solicited from everyone he knew, he struck out on his own, away from family and friends. He immediately went to work for the New York Sun, but found that it did not offer the opportunity he was seeking, so he looked elsewhere. In one of those fortuitous historically important events, the New York Times, which had been losing money for a long time, was taken over by Adolph S. Ochs, and he saw Wiley's energy as just what the Times needed for a revival, although he remained skeptical about Wiley's business sense. Wiley knew this was his "calling" as it were, and by 1906 he was the Times' business manager, a position he held until his sudden death in 1935. Ochs and Wiley did rescue the paper, although not always in agreement on the direction it should take. Ochs, for example, did not like ads