Autochrome Transparency
Still life of Hopi plaque and small seed jar. The plaque is coiled fiber bundle with a floral or star-like pattern. Seed jar, possibly a Nampeyo pot, is perched on a sizeable piece of petrified wood and both the jar and plaque are leaning against an adobe wall. There is a small patch of green grass in the foreground. (This plaque appears to be one with a finished coil which is indicitive of cultural significance - see below).
- 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: "These bundle coiled trays from Hopi Second Mesa have three different rim finishes to which cultural significance is given." A completed rim finish is known as 'the closed gate' which was made by a widow or older woman." Conversely, "the open gate" indicates the basket was made by an unmarried woman of child-bearing age. If the unfinished coil is neatly trimmed or only partly finished off, it was made by a married woman of chilbearing age." The plaque in this particular photo appears to be of the "closed gate" variety. 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 subsequently 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."0
- Donor: Mrs. Carl Flegal
- Catalog #: 97.069