Collection: Photochrome

The unique process was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jacob Schmid  (1856–1924), then an employee of the Swiss company Orell Füssli & Cie , a printing company dating back to the 16th Century. His invention was patented in 1888 by Orell Füssli, who established a subsidiary under the name Photochrom Zurich (which became PZ Photoglob Zurich in 1895). Photochrom prints, also called Aäc, or today Photochrome are ink-based images produced through "the direct photographic transfer of an original negative onto litho and chromographic printing plates." In the late 1890s, the rights to use the Photochrom process were transferred to the Detroit Photographic Company, which became the Detroit Publishing Company in 1905. Our collection here is made up of source material from both Detroit and Zurich. Our Photochrome images are printed in Switzerland. Many were made from glass 8" x 10" glass negatives personally inspected by our founder, Richard Weedn.