Original Absolute Charter of George Eastman House, Inc.
1. This instrument Witnesseth That the Board of Regents for and on behalf of the Education Department of the State of New York has granted this absolute charter
incorporating Raymond N. Ball, Albert D. Kaiser and Alan Valentine and their associates and successors as an educational corporation under the corporate name of
George Eastman House, Inc., to be located in the City of Rochester, County of Monroe, and State of New York.
2. The purposes for which the corporation is formed are:
- To establish, operate and maintain a museum of photography and allied pursuits in or about the City of Rochester, New York as a memorial to the late George Eastman;
- To promote, develop, conduct and maintain public exhibitions of photography and its uses;
- To establish, develop and maintain a graphic and continuing history of photography;
- To teach photography by demonstration and exhibition and to foster public knowledge of and interest in the various methods and techniques involved therein;
- To promote, encourage and develop photography and its allied arts and sciences;
- To receive, collect and preserve relics, records, apparatus, equipment, material and other items of historic or current interest;
- To carry out and discharge any of the purposes hereinabove set forth either directly or by contribution to other organizations, corporations, foundations or institutions organized for any of the above purposes.
3. The persons named as incorporators shall constitute the first board of trustees, to hold until their successors shall be chosen, with power in the board to fill vacancies, to adopt by-laws, and from time to time, by a three-fourths vote of all its members, to fix the terms of office of trustees and their number, to be not more than twenty-five nor less than five.
4. The corporation hereby created shall be a non-stick corporation organized and operated exclusively for educational purposed, and no part of its earnings or net income shall inure to the benefit of any individual; and no officer, member or employee of the corporation shall receive or be lawfully entitled to receive any pecuniary profit from the operations thereof, except reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of its corporate purposes.
5. The principal office of the corporation is to be located in the City of Rochester, County of Monroe, and State of New York.
Granted June 20, 1947 by the Board of Regents for and on behalf of the State Education Department.
