Kathleen A. Connor

Kathleen A. Connor serves as Adjunct Faculty at St. John Fisher College and Curator of the George Eastman House and George Eastman Legacy Collection. With 32 years of experience, she oversees a vast collection of over 200,000 artifacts spanning manuscripts, photographs, motion picture films, and three-dimensional historical items related to George Eastman and Kodak.

Education:

• B.A. from St. John Fisher College (1979)
• M.A. from Columbia University (1981)
• Graduate program in collections care, University of Delaware (1994)

Her expertise centers on Historic Preservation and Archival Science, with pioneering work in collection interpretation and public engagement. She has developed foundational resources like the Discovery Room and Discovery Kits, democratizing access to historical materials for educators and the public. Her research interests emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to museum studies, integrating photography history and material culture analysis.

As an educator, she hosts interns nationwide and teaches courses in Museum Studies and Historic Site Administration. In 1999, she established the George Eastman Legacy archive and study center, which now supports over 1,500 annual researchers through curated access to primary sources.