Library of Congress Photochrom lithography of
Naples (1880-1900)
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Photochrom lithography is a process for producing colorized
images from black-and-white photographic negatives via the
direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic
printing plates. The process was invented in the 1880s by
Hans Jakob Schmid (1856–1924), an employee of the Swiss company
Orell Gessner Füssli. From the mid-1890s the process was
licensed by other companies. The photochrom process was
most popular in the 1890s, when true color photography was first
developed but was still commercially impractical. The
process became extremely popular in the production of color
postcards for the tourist industry.
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