Eaton Lothrop and Nick Graver, speakers at PhotoHistory XIII, George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, October, 2006.
Two "dinosaurs," still using slides in trays, while so many speakers had converted to digital projection!
Photo: Robert Lansdale, Photographic Historical Society of Canada
Nicholas M. Graver 276 Brooklawn Dr., Rochester, NY 14618 585/ 244-4818
Eaton Lothrop Memorial Service at Collegiate School, NYC 2-7-09.
My assignment is Eaton’s “After School” hobby, Photographic History.
40 years of friendship in seven minutes, without crying!
Many friends have mentioned - how much Eaton knew, that he kindly shared it all, and what a great collection he had,……….. but
most of all what a grand person he was.
I’m Upstate, in Rochester, NY- the center of Photography, and home of The Photographic Historical Society. When I joined this Society in 1969, it included: distinguished Kodak engineers, camera & lens designers, patent specialists, Leica experts, the professor of Optics, the Director of the George Eastman House museum, & private collectors, including the grandson of Brownell, who made all of Eastman’s early cameras.
This highly sophisticated group puzzled me, for no matter what topic was discussed, I heard: “Well
Eaton says this,
Eaton will know that,
Eaton collects those,
Eaton wrote about that.”
Who the heck is this Eaton guy, I asked? A charter member in Brooklyn - who really knows so much.
My first “Eaton experience.” We became the best of friends.
He was quite an accomplished photographer as you well know.
Always the educator, he published the world’s first periodical in this field,
The Photographic Collector’s Newsletter in 1968.
Eaton, with the Burnsides, cataloged the 1970 Strober Sale, first major auction of cameras & photos. And they also inventoried the first photo museum.
When George Eastman House (the world’s leading photo museum) wanted a book on their camera collection, Eaton wrote it!
“A Century of Cameras,” 1973.
The
amazing Spira collection was featured in a lavish book largely written by Eaton.
His huge collection includes rare and exotic examples, but also is especially strong in the everyday cameras that took most of the family photos we all treasure. He has more novelty and single-use cameras than anyone.
He loved images (that’s what we call photos) and gathered everything from Daguerreotypes (the first photos.) through tintypes, snapshots, and the photos and cameras used by street photographers here and abroad.
Eaton was first president of The Photographic Historical Society of America and also was president of the New York society that later became a national group.
He belonged to all the American photo historical societies and many foreign ones. His articles appeared in all their publications.
Before there were Price Guides for cameras I would phone Eaton with questions. When Price Guides did appear, he helped write them.
He wrote “Time Exposure,” a regular column for many years in Popular Photography magazine.
We have a symposium in Rochester every three years and Eaton spoke five times, the most lectures by anyone.
He even taught summer college courses in the Southwest.
Eaton was a great traveler, visiting every US state, and many foreign countries, sometimes with his family, sometimes lecturing, or at Photo Shows.
Not a day goes by that I don’t have a question for him, something to show him, or a newspaper clipping to send. He has been a far greater loss than with my own parents!
Five little stories:
Helping someone find his first book, I once called the specialty store, Light Impressions, asking for
“A Century of Cameras.” The rather “Artsy” clerk finally came back on the phone saying: “I looked everywhere, and we have nothing on
SENSUOUS CAMERAS!”.
We have been gathering an album of tributes that his grand children will appreciate one day. Just this week, a Canadian author, Wayne Morgan, wrote them a letter.
“He never met Mr.Lothrop”, he said, but his whole career turned-around after reading Eaton’s article on
his favorite subject. He will be forever indebted to Eaton for the inspiration and information he got from that publication. [By the way, if
you send a tribute to the school, it will be included in the album.]
There is a ‘collector’ story about George Layne from Philadelphia. George is present & was to be my backup reader if I was delayed by my plane landing in the river. They do that right here, you know!
George was all excited about a rare camera he discovered researching at the Smithsonian. He shared that with me, and I bounced it off an already sick Eaton. Eaton quickly emailed a superior photo of his similar rare camera, but a
much better example than in the NATIONAL COLLECTION! Even after the terminal diagnosis,
when his days were numbered, Eaton was helping a fellow collector ……….Just amazing.
Marti Jones - of Manchester, NH, tells her special Eaton story. He regularly exhibited at Photo Antique shows, with a table of things for sale.
Eaton the Teacher also took another table for an educational display!
At the leading Boston show,
dealers really compete for the best table location. Being the highly respected figure he was, Eaton could have any spot in the hall. His table request was simply,
“next to Marti Jones.” She was always thrilled, for they were great friends, and shared many interests.
I’ll close with the most significant memory from my wife, Marilyn:
“She never heard him say a critical or unkind word of anyone, over 40 years!”
PS: As we stood outside on the steps, waiting for the doors to open, Matthew Isenburg of CT said exactly those same words!
Thanks for coming together today.
2/6/09
Posted by PHSNE Forum moderator, Joe Walters, on behalf of Nicholas Graver. This post is of Nick's eulogy of Eaton at the memorial service. We will keep this thread open so that other members may post their thoughts about Eaton on this Forum thread.
