It’s February and that means more of the same—snow, sleet, rain, frigid temperatures, and seemingly endless gray skies. The best cure for this is a tropical vacation but that’s not always possible. Luckily there are lots of ways to brighten your dark days in the Finger Lakes Region!

Last weekend my friend Jennifer and I drove to Rochester to check out the “Dutch Connection”, a stupendous flower exhibit, at the George Eastman House. She had never been there but, given her keen interest in history and photography, I thought she’d be a perfect companion for this particular outing!

Mr. Eastman himself was a fascinating mix of businessman, philanthropist, and dedicated supporter (often anonymously) of higher education. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were one of his priorities. He was also a dutiful son, a kind and generous friend, avid outdoorsman, world traveler, and supporter of the arts. The first floor is home to many of his recreational interests (Books! Billiards! Animal hides and mounts!) Jen and I observed that people who lived during that era liked to play as hard as they worked and their willingness to not only share their wealth with the less fortunate, but to surround themselves with luxurious and beautiful belongings was appealing to us. Though maybe not so much to Mr. Eastman’s pious, unpretentious mother who lived with him until her passing.

On the second-floor there’s a room dedicated to, not only his accomplishments, but also some of the less happy times in his life. Mr. Eastman never married and had no children. Therefore, when he received a debilitating diagnosis, he chose to end his own life, rather than be a burden to anyone. The note he left behind was short and to the point, “My work here is done.” He was laid to rest near the old Eastman Kodak campus.

We also discovered things that exist only in old photographs and our memories, items today’s kids would likely not be familiar with. The two of us happily reminisced over several hat boxes (remember those Easter hats?) from local department stores like Sibley’s and Mc Curdy’s that are long gone. These sparked memories of the white rabbit fur muffs we used to love to warm our frozen fingers in and my mom’s fancy fox stole with the mouth that snapped open and shut!

Fittingly, our final stop was Life with Photographs: 75 Years of the Eastman Museum. It’s a wonderfully eclectic exhibit which runs until August 31, 2025. Images from the past hang next to those with a twenty-first century focus giving visitors a glimpse of what an amazing contribution the Eastman House has made to, not just the city of Rochester, but the whole world, in terms of its care for, and collection of, photos since the 1900’s.

The image which brought this juxtaposition of past and present home to me in a highly visceral way was Dawoud Bey’s 50^th anniversary tribute to the young victims of the 1963 bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. The black and white photo on the left represents a child that was killed by white supremacists that day and the photo on right is how they might have looked had they lived to adulthood. Seen through that lens, the viewer begins to understand the magnitude of what occurred that fateful day. It was not only a family’s loss, nor a church’s, or even the community’s; it was every American’s loss.

For anyone who likes history, horticulture, and art this is an ideal day trip !