From the Darkroom: Experimenting with Virtual School Tours

Over the course of the last two years, the Eastman Museum has been experimenting to provide our online community with engaging and educational content, as well as reach new audiences.

As part of this and our broader push to transform our educational programming, we have begun to experiment with virtual school tours.

The first tour that we are developing specifically focuses on George Eastman’s role in transforming photography through the use of gelatin emulsions. Our goal is to give students a look into what photography was like prior to digital, and why this one moment in photography is relevant to them today. The aim is to create something that is a mix of history, science, and art for students and that is easy for teachers to implement, providing them with all the materials they need to prepare the class for their virtual visit and follow up after.

In December, we had our first beta test of this program with a high school photography class in Iowa. Over their class period, students learned about George Eastman’s role in the history of photography, saw how gelatin emulsions are made from scratch, and how this substance is used to create the film for still and motion picture cameras. They also learned why this is important and how it relates to the world they see today.

Students followed along with the chemistry segment using handouts created by the museum that walked them through the recipe of creating the emulsions and each student got a piece of 35mm film to see what the end result of this process creates. While the class was virtual, we wanted to make sure that we are emphasizing the importance of these objects as physical things.

Looking forward, we’re continuing to hone the class for middle school, high school, and college audiences and will be planning on running more beta tests. Once we have this first field trip ready to launch for anyone to register, we will begin exploring other themes!

This is where we need you! We are looking for middle school and high school classes, especially located in the City of Rochester, to help us test these. If you’re interested, please reach out at DigitalLearning [at] eastman [dot] org. We look forward to sharing more information and exploring the opportunity to partner.