Old Faithful Photochrom

This image represents a revolutionary innovation in colorized photo-printing born in the late 1800s. Photochrom prints were ink-based images produced by directly transferring a photograph from an original negative onto litho and chromographic printing plates. As color photography was still rare, the original photos were taken in black and white and artists would take detailed notes on the colors present in the scene. They would later reference those notes to hand paint the colors onto the negative, before transferring the image through colored gels onto the printing plates. This technique was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid (1856-1924), who worked for the Swiss firm Orell Füssli, which published the prints through a company with the imprint Photochrom Zürich, later Photoglob Zürich.

The technique was licensed to other companies starting in the mid 1890s included the Detroit Photographic Company (later Detroit Publishing Company) in the United States and the Photochrom Company in London, England. These companies produced tens of thousands of colorized images from around the world to be sold at tourist sites and through mail order catalogue.

Text at the bottom of the image begins with a serial number and reads: 58304 “Old Faithful” Geyser, Yellowstone National Park. Copyright 1898 by the Photochrom Co.

Original Artist: N/A. Produced by the Photochrom Co

Year Published: 1898

Poster Size: 20in x 28in

Price Per Print: $42