Girls on Marken Island.
Image: Library of Congress
These postcards of the windmills, canals and cities of the late 1890s Netherlands were created using the Photochrom process, a technique for applying lifelike color to black-and-white images.
Invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid, an employee of a Swiss printing company, the process begins with applying a light-sensitive emulsion to a lithographic limestone tablet and exposing it to sunlight under a photo negative for several hours.
The emulsion hardens in proportion to the tones of the negative. The less-hardened portions are then removed with a solvent, leaving a fixed lithographic image on the tablet.
Additional litho stones are then prepared for each tint to be used in the final image — a single Photochrom might require over a dozen stones and hours of labor to produce.
Though painstaking and time-consuming, the Photochrom process was capable of creating remarkably precise color images at a time when true color photography was just starting to be developed.
Image: Library of Congress
A canal in Amsterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
The great market, Nijmegen.
Image: Library of Congress
Children on Marken Island.
Image: Library of Congress
A canal in the Hague.
Image: Library of Congress
Town Hall, Haarlem.
Image: Library of Congress
Amsterdam Gate, Haarlem.
Image: Library of Congress
Catharine Bridge and windmill, Haarlem.
Image: Library of Congress
The Town Hall and great market, Nijmegen.
Image: Library of Congress
Belvedere, Nijmegen.
Image: Library of Congress
Arcade, Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
Two bridges on the Meuse, Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
A canal in Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
Coolvest, Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
The road to the Scheveningen.
Image: Library of Congress
The beach at Scheveningen.
Image: Library of Congress
Beach chairs at Scheveningen.
Image: Library of Congress
Boats on the beach at Scheveningen.
Image: Library of Congress
Beachgoers and the Kursaal, Scheveningen.
Image: Library of Congress
Oude Gracht Bakkerbrug, Utrecht.
Image: Library of Congress
The Witte Huis, Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
A park in Utrecht.
Image: Library of Congress
A pond in Arnhem.
Image: Library of Congress
Beekhuizen, Arnhem.
Image: Library of Congress
Janssingel, Arnhem.
Image: Library of Congress
Water tower, Delft.
Image: Library of Congress
The Knights' Hall in the Hague.
Image: Library of Congress
Cathedral interior, Rotterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
Inside a home on Marken Island.
Image: Library of Congress
The Binnenhof and Court Pond at The Hague.
Image: Library of Congress
Dam Square, Amsterdam.
Image: Library of Congress
Image: Library of Congress
A man on Marken Island.
Image: Library of Congress
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