Hand-Colored Photographs of 19th Century Japan

This week, The Pub­lic Domain Review (PDR) post­ed a series hand-col­ored albu­mine prints (“a process which used the albu­men found in egg whites to bind the pho­to­graph­ic chem­i­cals to the paper) from 19th cen­tu­ry Japan. They date back to 1880.

Some of the prints, like the one below, cer­tain­ly have a for­eign qual­i­ty to them. They feel far away in terms of time and place. But oth­ers (like the shot above) feel remark­ably close, some­thing we can all relate to today.

Accord­ing to the PDR, the pic­tures came to reside in the Dutch Nation­al Archive as a result of the cen­turies-long com­mer­cial rela­tion­ship between the Dutch and the Japan­ese. More vin­tage pix can be viewed here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Old­est Col­or Movies Bring Sun­flow­ers, Exot­ic Birds and Gold­fish Back to Life (1902)

One of the Ear­li­est Known Pho­tos of Guys Sit­ting Around and Drink­ing Beer (Cir­ca 1845)

1922 Pho­to: Claude Mon­et Stands on the Japan­ese Foot­bridge He Paint­ed Through the Years