In honor of mother’s day the George Eastman House, in Rochester, New York, was decorated with flowers and themed table top displays. My favorite display was in the conservatory.

 

In his retirement, Eastman often invited a group of four young married women to join him for lunch on Saturdays.  The group consisted of Mrs. George Whipple, wife of the Dean of the medical school; Mrs. Harold Gleason, wife of Eastman’s organist; Mrs. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, wife of a professor of bacteriology at the University of Rochester; and Mrs. Marion Folsom, wife of an Eastman Kodak executive. They were like nieces to Eastman.

 

Since the group often dined on lobster, they became known as the Lobster Quartet. Eastman always gave his female guests orchid corsages and presented them in boxes lined with lilac tissue paper.

 

Eastman subscribed to Vogue magazine and kept up with the latest fashions so he would have something to talk about with his female guests. He was rather opinionated about the colors women wore. He disliked black and liked to see women in bright colors.

 

When visiting Rochester, New York, be sure to stop by the George Eastman House.

Photographs taken by Lynda Pflueger