Norwegian Photocroms, 1890 – 1900

A photocrom is a colorized image produced from a black and white negative.  The image is transferred onto lithographic printing plates and subsequently colorized; it’s essentially a photographic variant of chromolithography, which in turn, was a popular means for the mass printing of color lithographs from the 1870’s to the 1930’s.  Hans Jakob Schmid of Switzerland developed the photocrom process in the 1880’s while working for a printing firm.  It was all part of what was then the growing art of color photography.  Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress.