Olan Mills color portrait circa 1940s - process?

sionnac · Nov 20, 2019

Hello collective wisdom -

I'm a librarian (and photographer) cataloging a collection of 19th and 20th century prints. I came across a 10 x 8 color print, a commercial portrait of a woman, with an Olan Mills stamp on the back that says Springfield Ohio, so it's 1940 or later; https://www.company-histories.com/Olan-Mills-Inc-Company-History.html.

The paper is textured, coated fibers (there is a binder). The process sort of looks like carbro (slight differential gloss in a few places, I do see pigment particles: http://graphicsatlas.org/guidedtour/?process_id=82) but there is no misregistration, there's a clean border. Is this a matte chromogenic print, a carbro print, or was it hand colored/airbrushed? Does anyone know what process Olan Mills was using for color in the 40s or early 50s? It looks like the penciled reorder number is 12701-18.

Click the thumbnail to enlarge: https://haverhill.pastperfectonline.com/photo/BFBDD347-CCEF-4A7A-B1E0-015580572042

Thanks -
Dana

pwitkop · Nov 20, 2019

My guess is that this is hand colored, that's what it looks like to my eye. On my phone. I'd have to look up what color processes were around exactly when but the ones that would have lasted well would have been a rather expensive high end portrait

dmr · Nov 20, 2019

It says "chromogenic", so I assume something like an earlier Kodacolor, or a professional version (Ektacolor?) or something similar. I know that my dad took Kodacolor photos in the late 1940s and I remember the prints faded in a manner similar to that print over time.

Bill Burk · Nov 21, 2019

As the librarian, did you categorize it as chromogenic? That might be a mistake.
It has the style of a hand-colored (oil on silver gelatin) print.

foc · Nov 21, 2019

Bill Burk said:
As the librarian, did you categorize it as chromogenic? That might be a mistake.
It has the style of a hand-colored (oil on silver gelatin) print.

+1

Kino · Nov 21, 2019

I would also vote for a B&W print, hand colored with oil pigments.

I do not think it is a natural color print. You could probably determine what paper was used if you locate an old Kodak Master Lab Guide with paper samples bound into the publication.

For a more formal studies, see:

Chromogenic Characterization: A Study of Kodak Color Prints, 1942-2008
Gawain Weaver and Zach Long
http://resources.conservation-us.org/pmgtopics/2009-volume-thirteen/13_13_Weaver.html

AND

Fisher, Erin. (2018). Decoding: A Guide to Kodak Paper Surface Characteristics. Collections. 14. 207-225. 10.1177/155019061801400207. From 1880 to 2005, the Eastman Kodak Company manufactured black-and-white fiber-based gelatin silver paper in a wide variety of weights, grades, and formats. Kodak manufacturer records and sample books include details about Kodak paper surface characteristics and are an invaluable resource for understanding photographic paper materials. Using the extensive number of Kodak data books, manuals, and manufacturing records spread out in the collections of three Rochester, New York-based institutions—George Eastman Museum, University of Rochester Special Collections, and Image Permanence Institute—I created a chronological guide to Kodak photographic paper surface characteristics. This guide is not an approximate identification guide for Kodak papers but rather a resource that can be used to fill in gaps and propose questions about Kodak manufacturing history that is no longer easily accessible. The guide aims to help researchers, photography archivists and historians, conservators, collection managers, or anyone else interested in Kodak history gain access to a better understanding of photographic paper produced by Kodak from 1930 to 1955. The process for creating the guide is described in this article and may be used as a starting point for future research while also illuminating the importance of documenting and providing access to technological and material details about photographic objects.

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

Bill Burk said:
As the librarian, did you categorize it as chromogenic? That might be a mistake.
It has the style of a hand-colored (oil on silver gelatin) print.

Hi - I did yesterday but I'm changing it to "hand-colored gelatin silver print or possibly carbro" - the process field will say gelatin silver print and then the hand-colored is in the description and the image metadata. I thought it might have been some super matte process. It has exactly the same type of pigment particles as in http://graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=330#magnification but no misregistration.

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

foc said:
+1

Yes I think you're right. I'm going to change it. It has pigment particles like a carbro print - could it possibly be airbrush colored?

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

Kino said:
I would also vote for a B&W print, hand colored with oil pigments.

Thanks Kino, I think you all are right and I am gong to update it today.

I do not think it is a natural color print. You could probably determine what paper was used if you locate an old Kodak Master Lab Guide with paper samples bound into the publication.

For a more formal studies, see:

Chromogenic Characterization: A Study of Kodak Color Prints, 1942-2008
Gawain Weaver and Zach Long
http://resources.conservation-us.org/pmgtopics/2009-volume-thirteen/13_13_Weaver.html

AND

Fisher, Erin. (2018). Decoding: A Guide to Kodak Paper Surface Characteristics. Collections. 14. 207-225. 10.1177/155019061801400207. From 1880 to 2005, the Eastman Kodak Company manufactured black-and-white fiber-based gelatin silver paper in a wide variety of weights, grades, and formats. Kodak manufacturer records and sample books include details about Kodak paper surface characteristics and are an invaluable resource for understanding photographic paper materials. Using the extensive number of Kodak data books, manuals, and manufacturing records spread out in the collections of three Rochester, New York-based institutions—George Eastman Museum, University of Rochester Special Collections, and Image Permanence Institute—I created a chronological guide to Kodak photographic paper surface characteristics. This guide is not an approximate identification guide for Kodak papers but rather a resource that can be used to fill in gaps and propose questions about Kodak manufacturing history that is no longer easily accessible. The guide aims to help researchers, photography archivists and historians, conservators, collection managers, or anyone else interested in Kodak history gain access to a better understanding of photographic paper produced by Kodak from 1930 to 1955. The process for creating the guide is described in this article and may be used as a starting point for future research while also illuminating the importance of documenting and providing access to technological and material details about photographic objects.

voceumana · Nov 21, 2019

I have a hand colored B&W print of my grandmother, probably taken around the same time as this photograph. It looks to me very much like a hand-colored B&W print. My father had an early Kodachrome (yes, Kodachrome--it was so marked on the back) color print from the 1950's. It was a wallet sized print and had a very different appearance--it seemed to be printed on plastic rather than on paper, or perhaps on an opalescent film. Probably derived from a Kodachrome slide.

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

voceumana said:
I have a hand colored B&W print of my grandmother, probably taken around the same time as this photograph. It looks to me very much like a hand-colored B&W print. My father had an early Kodachrome (yes, Kodachrome--it was so marked on the back) color print from the 1950's. It was a wallet sized print and had a very different appearance--it seemed to be printed on plastic rather than on paper, or perhaps on an opalescent film. Probably derived from a Kodachrome slide.

The colors are a bit more vibrant than they appear online. Most of the hand-colored items I've cataloged so far have been tintypes, albumen prints and lantern slides. Over 10,000 online now. It's a great project.

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

Kino, the paper isn't marked on the back except for the Olan Mills stamp and some library classification numbers. It's uncoated, heavy and it does have the curl described in Graphics Atlas for carbro but I have never handled one before. Thanks to everyone for the help, much appreciated. I did make the changes online.

Kino said:
I would also vote for a B&W print, hand colored with oil pigments.

I do not think it is a natural color print. You could probably determine what paper was used if you locate an old Kodak Master Lab Guide with paper samples bound into the publication.

For a more formal studies, see:

Chromogenic Characterization: A Study of Kodak Color Prints, 1942-2008
Gawain Weaver and Zach Long
http://resources.conservation-us.org/pmgtopics/2009-volume-thirteen/13_13_Weaver.html

AND

Fisher, Erin. (2018). Decoding: A Guide to Kodak Paper Surface Characteristics. Collections. 14. 207-225. 10.1177/155019061801400207. From 1880 to 2005, the Eastman Kodak Company manufactured black-and-white fiber-based gelatin silver paper in a wide variety of weights, grades, and formats. Kodak manufacturer records and sample books include details about Kodak paper surface characteristics and are an invaluable resource for understanding photographic paper materials. Using the extensive number of Kodak data books, manuals, and manufacturing records spread out in the collections of three Rochester, New York-based institutions—George Eastman Museum, University of Rochester Special Collections, and Image Permanence Institute—I created a chronological guide to Kodak photographic paper surface characteristics. This guide is not an approximate identification guide for Kodak papers but rather a resource that can be used to fill in gaps and propose questions about Kodak manufacturing history that is no longer easily accessible. The guide aims to help researchers, photography archivists and historians, conservators, collection managers, or anyone else interested in Kodak history gain access to a better understanding of photographic paper produced by Kodak from 1930 to 1955. The process for creating the guide is described in this article and may be used as a starting point for future research while also illuminating the importance of documenting and providing access to technological and material details about photographic objects.

cowanw · Nov 21, 2019

What's online suggests Duotone with additional hand colouring and air brush. I doubt this is the duotone of half tone printing. Perhaps someone knows what was done in the 1930's.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/olan-mills-inc-history/
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2506

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

cowanw said:
What's online suggests Duotone with additional hand colouring and air brush. I doubt this is the duotone of half tone printing. Perhaps someone knows what was done in the 1930's.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/olan-mills-inc-history/
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2506

Thanks Bill. I think it's 1940 or later, from what I read about Olan Mills online they didn't operate in Springfield until 1940 and the back is stamped with "Olan Mills Incorporated / Springfield, Ohio."

Mr Bill · Nov 21, 2019

I don't have any first-hand knowledge, but I'd also guess that it's a hand-tinted b&w photo.

What I would have done when I had tools available would be to inspect under an infrared scope. I'd been involved in high-volume pro photofinishing from the 1970s. EVERY chromogenic material I've seen has been transparent to near infrared. In fact, a standard method to test processed color negs and prints for "retained silver" (a processing defect) is to view, in the dark, under an infrared scope. These materials should all appear to be completely blank. If there is any sign of an image this is due to silver not being fully removed, indicating a problem with either the bleach or the fixer. The point is, if you can view under such an IR scope, seeing a blank image is pretty conclusive proof that it is NOT a silver image (thus not a hand-tinted silver image), and a very good likelihood that it is chromogenic. (My only doubt is whether something like a dye-transfer might also be transparent to IR.)

We used FJW "Find-R-Scope" units, the style with an attached light source (circa 1980s, maybe '70s). We also used, in the cine processor darkrooms, a CCD video camera that could see IR (most standard CCD cameras would have filters added to block the IR). These need a "light" source; it used to be easy to find IR-pass filters (visually look black) to use over a small incandescent lamp. Such a thing can also be used. Again, you must take the paper in the dark, and illuminate only with IR "light," which humans cannot see. If there happens to be a good-sized photo lab, or former photo lab, near you, perhaps they have such a scope. I wonder if a museum with a print specialty section might also have same.

A second possible test, if you are willing to damage a small area of the print, is to lightly scrape a small section of the emulsion. If you have a low-power stereo microscope (long working distance - a couple inches or so), say about 20 or 30X, you can scrape an area about the size of a pinhead (use something like an Exact-O knife). You'll be looking for discrete dye layers - cyan, magenta, and yellow. The points of this is that all chromogenic materials have to be coated in multiple color layers. If you find that the colors are NOT layered, it cannot be chromogenic. If you want something to practice on try a recent vintage color photo.

Anyway, that's how I'd be inclined to start out.

Ps, in more modern times a certain number of scanners have had "ICE" built in. This was the system developed by "Applied Science Fiction" that uses an IR channel to look for non-image defects. If you have a system that will show the IR channel this could substitute for an IR scope.

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

Here it is. Hand colored Duotone, as Bill said above.
https://art.ua.edu/news/ua-alumna-cofounded-innovative-photography-business/
I'll change description and upload it at the end of the day as usual. Thanks everyone. And thanks, Mary Mills.

GRHazelton · Nov 21, 2019

voceumana said:
I have a hand colored B&W print of my grandmother, probably taken around the same time as this photograph. It looks to me very much like a hand-colored B&W print. My father had an early Kodachrome (yes, Kodachrome--it was so marked on the back) color print from the 1950's. It was a wallet sized print and had a very different appearance--it seemed to be printed on plastic rather than on paper, or perhaps on an opalescent film. Probably derived from a Kodachrome slide.

I recall seeing Kodachrome prints;your description is a good one. My Father shot a lot of Kodachrome,they've held up well, as would be expected.
Greetings, sionnac, from a fellow librarian (MSLS Rutgers) now retired! I generally enjoyed my library career in the public sector.. "Live long, and prosper."

Kino · Nov 21, 2019

Not to beat this to death, but I failed to mention my suggestion to identify the paper was based upon the surface characteristics of the paper itself.

The unique screens used to texture the paper are a good clue, as described in this book located on The Light Farm: http://www.thelightfarm.com/BookImages/Guide_to_Surface_Characteristics_FINAL.pdf

sionnac · Nov 21, 2019

Thanks, great resource, I will definitely use that.

pentaxuser · Nov 21, 2019

voceumana said:
I have a hand colored B&W print of my grandmother, probably taken around the same time as this photograph. It looks to me very much like a hand-colored B&W print. .

The minute I looked at it I was reminded of a picture of me taken in b&w in about 1954/5 but hand coloured. There is something different about the look of an hand coloured portrait and this one certainly has that look.

pentaxuser

sionnac · Nov 22, 2019

I classified it today as hand colored gelatin silver print, instead of Duotone. I thought the Duotone pattern would be covered by the paint but I can't detect it with the microscope I use, and I corresponded with IPI about it. I'll upload changes at the end of the day. Learning as I go with these.

Bob Carnie · Nov 22, 2019

Looks like hand coloured maybe with some airbrush on silver gelatin warmtone paper.

cowanw · Nov 22, 2019

One Duotone process is the mechanical reproduction technique as in half tone reproduction. And you are quite right there should be a dot pattern to be seen. I suspect there is a second "Duotone technique" popular in the 1930-40's that uses a two colour process done with film negatives, that has been lost to general knowledge. There were a lot of subtractive two colour process brands, but I cannot find Duotone on the web.
https://filmcolors.org/timeline-of-historical-film-colors/?sort=color_system-asc&records=all

Olan Mills color portrait circa 1940s - process?

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