This book tells the remarkable story of the Kodak Girl, one of the most durable and successful marketing campaigns in advertising history. Created by George Eastman, inventor of the inexpensive hand-held camera, the Kodak Girl traces the intersection of American culture with photography as it evolved from a studio-bound practice to a snapshot obsession for the masses.

Martha Cooper’s extensive collection of Kodak Girl material ranges from advertising, by Kodak and other camera manufacturers, to photographs from all periods, engravings, trading cards, matchbooks as well as commemorative stamps and Valentine’s Days cards. This rich collection considers the relationship of the Kodak Girl to the birth of the snapshot during the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, and is accompanied by two essays on the seminal role of women – on both sides of the camera – in photography's early history.