Autochrome Transparency
Young children, Margaret and Paul, standing on gravel road in front of red sandstone cliff. Margaret (looks to be approximatly 6 or 7 years old) is carrying Paul (approximatly 1-2 years old) on her back: A plaid blanket (green black, white and red squares) with red fringe is wrapped around the boy and over the girls shoulders, overlapped in front, secured by her clasped arms. This seems to faciliate in the portage of the smaller child who peeks shyly over the edge of the blanket. Paul is shod with leather button-up shoes while Margaret wears leather lace-up's. She is also wearing knit leggings (or longjohns) and a checked blue-white skirt.
- Object: Autochrome Transparency
- Artist: George Holt
- Circa: Early to mid 1920s
- Dimensions: 3 1/4" x 4"
- Culture Area: Southwest
- Cultural Group: Hopi
- Cultural Context: The autochrome transparencies in the Flegal collection were taken by George Holt, the donor's father. He was a chaplain for the baptist church and travelled all over the world visiting missionaries and subsequenthy photographing neophytes in various locales. The autochrome process was the first commercially successful color application of photography which enabled photographers like Holt to get high quality color photos of their subjects. However, the burden of carrying numerous unexposed glass plates to remote locations often proved cumbersome, at best. As a sidebar, the historic significance of autochrome is worth noting. As mentioned earlier, autochromes were "the first viable color photographic process." The process was patented in 1907 by Auguste and Louis Lumiere of France. "The autochrome 'screen' was created by forming a layer of minute starch grains dyed in the primary colors (red, blue, green) ..." which was over lain with a layer of lampblack (filling the space between the grains) then a layer of shellack. "So when exposed, the light traversed the glass through the grain and exposed the light/color sensitive emulsion from the back. After exposure (using a view camera on a tripod) the plate was processed to reverse in an acid dichromate-type process."
- Donor: Mrs. Carl Flegal
- Catalog #: 97.063