The Kodak Girl: Photography, Advertising, and Women Behind the Camera

Drawing on her recent book contribution, Illuminating the Kodak Girl: Style and Marketing in the Gilded Age, Perich examines a remarkable 1909 photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer of a young woman with a camera used in Kodak’s direct mail advertising. Through this single image, she reveals how photography connects to larger stories about advertising, technology, and the evolving role of women behind — and in front of — the camera. This engaging talk highlights how everyday images can illuminate broader historical narratives.

Shannon Thomas Perich is the curator in the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where she has worked for almost three decades. The scope of her work covers daguerreotype to digital, and can be seen in exhibitions, essays, books, blogs, and collaborative conservation projects. Her research interests include the relationship between photography and gun culture, snapshots as data sets, and the circulation of images, with a particular interest in post-WWII magazines and real photo postcards. She is serving as the conference chair for the 2026 International Nineteenth Century Studies Association (INCSA) Conference (July 21-24). Her most current publication (April 2026) is the chapter, “Illuminating the Kodak Girl: Style and Marketing in the Gilded Age” in U.S. History in 15 Photographs: 1865 to the 21st Century, edited by Rebecca S. Wingo and Lauren Tilton.