William Henry Jackson Photochroms

Title

William Henry Jackson Photochroms

Subject

Photochrom prints
Photography
Jackson, William Henry
America

Description

Both a photographer and painter, William Henry Jackson is an early American artist whose work primarily documents the American West and Southwest of the late 1800s. He worked at various times for the Union Pacific and Baltimore & Ohio railroads, the 1870s U.S. government survey, the 1871 Hayden Geological Survey, and the World's Transportation Commission.

His subjects range vastly depending on assignment and include vistas of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, portraits of Ute leaders, and the homes of verdant California. In 1893, many of his photographs were on display at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, bringing the fantastic and mythical world of the American frontier into focus for many who would never actually see the landmarks captured in the colloidion process.

Before the advent of color film, photochroms were the best process for the development of color in photography. A highly intensive process, photochroms combine elements of traditional photography and color lithography, applying layers of color to images originally developed in black-and-white. At least four different lithography stones are needed to colorize each image, and sometimes as many of fourteen were employed. Magenta, cyan, yellow and black were base colors, applied in heaver and lighter impressions as needed.

The carefully applied layers of color breathe astonishing life into the photos. Heavily shaded with tones of green and blue, the images show a wide and fertile landscape for American expansion. Jackson's work is built on the basis of manifest destiny, showing both the landscape into which the country would grow, but also the changes already wrought by American industry as railroads cut through scenes and stately homes grow from the groves of California's tropical scenery.

The Decker Library is home to a collection of 187 of Jackson's original prints, many produced by the Detroit Photographic Company. For more information about the William Henry Jackson photochrom collection or to see more prints, visit the Decker Library website or contact our reference desk as refer@mica.edu.

Creator

Allison Fischbach, Decker Library

Date

2017-06-02

Rights

Photograph by Decker Library. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For digital surrogates utilize the rights statement provided by DIU.

Language

English

Files

photochrome1.jpg
photochrome7.jpg
photochrome5.jpg
photochrome6.jpg

Collection

Citation

Allison Fischbach, Decker Library, “William Henry Jackson Photochroms,” Decker Library Exhibits and Displays, accessed March 29, 2024, https://deckerlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/12.

Output Formats