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Detroit Photographic Co. William Henry Jackson Photochrom Album

 Collection
Identifier: PICT-2019-006

Scope and Content

Album of 95 photochroms in gilt leather album, 11-1/2 x 14-3/4 inches. The photochroms are printed by Detroit Photographic Co. from glass plate collodion negatives by William Henry Jackson. Images are mounted on the fronts and backs of 52 pages in corner slits; 94 are 9x6-3/4inches, one is 6-1/2x4-3/4inches. Four pages are blank, having photo corners but no prints. Individual prints are copyright stamped between 1898 – 1902, and each... has a title and an ID number.

Depicted subjects include: Indians of the Southwest (Acoma, Apache, Hopi, Isleta, Papago, Pueblo, Utes, Zuni); Cities and views of California (Catalina Island, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Redlands, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, and cactus garden, cattle ranching, Chinatown, date palms, Hotel del Coronado, La Jolla Caves, Ramona’s Home, Sweetwater Dam Yosemite); California Missions (Carmel, Dolores, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Gabriel, San Juan Bautista, San Juan Capistrano including Charles Lummis, San Luis Rey, San Miguel, Santa Barbara, Santa Inez); Colorado cities and scenes (Antlers Hotel, cattle roundup on Cimarron River, Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Grand River Canyon, Pike’s Peak, railroad views, St. Peter’s Dome, Ute Pass); and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
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Dates

  • 1898-1902
  • Majority of material found in 1880s-1905

Language of Materials

English

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Duplication of print and photographic material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for copyright compliance. For more information see the Photographs and Images Research Guide and contact the Pictorial Archivist.

History

The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr., and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained the exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into color images and printing them by photolithography. Photochrom was the first successfully commercial... color photography, enabling the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American market.

Late in 1897, Livingstone persuaded the accomplished American landscape photographer, William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), to join the firm. This added the thousands of negatives of western and other subjects produced by Jackson to the Detroit Photographic Company's inventory. Jackson's collection included city and town views, images of prominent buildings, scenes along railroad lines, views of hotels and resorts, as well as scenic views and natural wonders.

William Henry Jackson became the plant manager in 1903, leaving him with less time to travel and take photographs. The firm was known as the Detroit Photographic Co. until 1905 when it became the Detroit Publishing Company. With the declining sale of photographs and postcards during World War I, and the introduction of new and cheaper printing methods used by competing firms, the Detroit Publishing Company went into receivership in 1924. They liquidated their assets in 1932.

In 1939 Jackson gave the Detroit Publishing Company negatives and prints to the Edison Institute (now known as the Henry Ford Museum) in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1949, the Edison Institute gave all of the negatives and many duplicate photographs to the Colorado Historical Society. The Colorado Historical Society transferred most of the negatives and prints for sites east of the Mississippi to the Library of Congress later that year.

Source: LOC Prints & Photographs Online Catalog:Detroit Publishing Company, accessed 6/14/2019.
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Extent

95 plus items (1 box) : Album with 95 photochrom prints

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