Detroit Photographic Co.

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Photographic company, first noted in city registers of Detroit in 1888. Supplied photographs for all purposes, especially for use in books, magazines, and advertising specialities. Many of the prints were of large framing size or suitable for long advertising hangers; however, its speciality was religious material. In the late 1890s, William A. Livingstone became active in the management of the company and at the urging of photographer Edwin H. Husher, he obtained exclusive ownership and rights to a photo-reproduction procress called Photochrom.

From the description of The White Mountains, New Hampshire, 1900. (Maine Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 213471503

The photochrom is a color photo lithograph created from a black and white photographic negative. Color impressions are achieved through the application of multiple lithograph stones, one per color. The process was developed in Switzerland and brought to the United States by the Detroit Publishing Company in 1897. Anticipating the success of the photochrom for the mass production of color prints, the Detroit Publishing Company recruited William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), a successful American photographer, to become a partner. He accepted, bringing with him more than 10,000 black and white negatives to add to the company's inventory. Jackson had been a photographer with the U.S. Geological Survey in the 1870s, which took him all over the west and cemented his reputation as one of the foremost landscape photographers of his time. During the 1880s Jackson continued to travel extensively, photographing hotels, city views, railroad lines, important buildings, and more. Jackson was taken with the photochrom process because it captured color so naturalistically, and he would devote himself to it in his last years of active photography. The collection contains more than four hundred of his photochroms with views from all over North America.

William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) was an American painter, photographer and explorer famous for his images of the American West. Born in Keeseville, N.Y., he spent his boyhood in Troy, N.Y. and Rutland, Vt. He joined an infantry regiment in the U.S. Civil War, fighting in the battle of Gettysburg, and mustered out after nine months. Soon thereafter he set out for the American West. He settled in Omaha, Neb. and started a photography business with his brother Ed. During this time he made many photographs, now famous, of Native Americans of the region. In 1869 Jackson won a commission from the Union Pacific Railroad to document the scenery along its route for promotional purposes. The following year, he was invited to join the 1870 U.S. government survey (predecessor of USGS) of the Yellowstone River and Rocky Mountains. He was also a member of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 in the Yellowstone region; in this way Jackson captured the earliest photographs of legendary landmarks of the West. Jackson's photographs of Yellowstone helped convince the U.S. Congress to make it the first National Park in March 1872.

After traveling the world collecting views and specimens on a commission from the Field Museum in Chicago, Jackson returned to Denver and focused on publishing. In 1897 he sold his entire stock of negatives and his own services to the Detroit Photographic Company, owned by William A. Livingstone, after that company had acquired the exclusive ownership and rights to the photochrom process in America. Jackson joined the company in 1898 as president, bringing with him an estimated 10,000 negatives which provided the core of the company's photographic archives, from which they produced pictures ranging in size from postcards to enormous panoramas. In 1903, Jackson became the plant manager, thus leaving him with less time to travel and take photographs. In 1905 or 1906, the company changed its name from the Detroit Photographic Co. to the Detroit Publishing Co. The Detroit Publishing Co. enjoyed a period of enormous success as a world-wide publisher of photographic prints and postcards, but its sales began to decline during World War I, and with the introduction of new and cheaper printing methods used by competing firms it was forced to go into receivership in 1924. In 1932 the company's assets were liquidated.

In 1936 Edsel Ford bought Jackson's 40,000 negatives for "The Edison Institute," known today as Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich. Eventually, Jackson's negatives were divided between the Colorado Historical Society (views west of the Mississippi), and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all other views).

William Henry Jackson died in 1942 at the age of 99. Recognized as one of the last surviving Civil War veterans, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

[Source for this note: "William Henry Jackson," Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Jackson ]

From the guide to the William Henry Jackson Photochrom Collection, 1898-1908, (Amherst College Archives and Special Collections)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Company. Cuba chromolithographs collection [picture]. University of New Mexico-Main Campus
creatorOf Richard W.D. Bryan photograph collection. University of New Mexico-Main Campus
referencedIn Detroit Publishing Co. Detroit Publishing Company Collection [graphic]. New-York Historical Society Library
referencedIn California photographs : album, 1885-1899. Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
referencedIn Cuba Chromolithographs Collection, 1900-1904 The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for SouthwestResearch
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Co. The White Mountains, New Hampshire, 1900. Maine Historical Society Library
referencedIn Haynes Family Photographs, 1866-1969 MSU-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
referencedIn Banning Family Collection of Photographs, Part I, 1850-1979, (bulk 1880s-1910s) The Huntington Library
creatorOf Haynes family. Haynes family photographs, 1866-1969. Montana State University (Bozeman, Mont.). Library
creatorOf Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942. Photochromes, 1898-1902. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
creatorOf Levy, Albert. Historic architecture and landscape image collection, ca. 1865-1973. Aurora University, Phillips Library
referencedIn John Dutton Wright photograph collection, circa 1920-1924 University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
creatorOf Dassonville, W. E. (William Edward), 1879-1957. Yosemite views [graphic] UC Berkeley Libraries
creatorOf Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942. Photographs, 1898-1905. College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library
creatorOf William Henry Jackson Photochrom Collection, 1898-1908 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
referencedIn John Dutton Wright photograph collection, circa 1920-1924 University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
referencedIn Elliott, Guy,. [Photochrom photographs], 1898-1904. Ohio State University Libraries
referencedIn Leisa Bronson collection, 1899-1907 The Museum of Northern Arizona
referencedIn Richard W.D. Bryan photograph collection. University of New Mexico-Main Campus
creatorOf Rinehart, F. A. (Frank A.). Rinehart's Indians, ca. 1903. Harold B. Lee Library
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Co. The White Mountains, New Hampshire photograph album, 1900. Maine Historical Society Library
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Company photographs of Yale University buildings, circa 1901 Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
creatorOf Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942. W. H. Jackson photochrom print collection [graphic], 1898-1906. Newberry Library
referencedIn The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Digital Collection Bancroft Library
referencedIn Four California scenes : photolithographs, 1898-1901. Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
referencedIn Franzwa, Greg. Photochrome list. Montana State University (Bozeman, Mont.). Library
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Co. Los Angeles, Cal. [graphic] : Broadway from the Courthouse. UC Berkeley Libraries
creatorOf Jenkins, Harold F. Trade catalogs of photography, 1883-1929. University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB Library
creatorOf Banning family,. Banning Family Collection of Photographs, Part I [graphic], 1850-1979 (bulk 1880s-1910s). Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
creatorOf Detroit Photographic Co. Photographs by the Detroit Photographic Company of Yale University buildings, circa 1901. Yale University Library
creatorOf Indians of North America Pictorial Collection The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for SouthwestResearch
referencedIn Detroit Publishing Company Collection, ca. 1885-1905 New-York Historical Society
referencedIn Indians of North America Pictorial Collection The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for SouthwestResearch
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Banning family, family
associatedWith Banning family. family
associatedWith Bronson, Leisa G. (Leisa Graeme), 1899- person
associatedWith Bryan, Richard W. D., 1849-1913 person
associatedWith Crawford House (Hotel : Carroll, N.H.) corporateBody
associatedWith Detroit Publishing Co. corporateBody
associatedWith Elliott, Guy, person
associatedWith Franzwa, Greg. person
associatedWith Haynes family family
associatedWith Haynes family. family
associatedWith Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942 person
associatedWith Maine Central Railroad Company. corporateBody
associatedWith Rinehart, F. A. (Frank A.) person
associatedWith Wright, John Dutton, 1866-1952 person
associatedWith Yale University corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
White Mountains (N.H. and Me.)
Ammonoosuc River (N.H.)
Moat Mountain (N.H.)
Crawford Notch (N.H.)
Maine
Franconia (N.H.)
Jefferson (N.H.)
Littleton (N.H.)
Presidential Range (N.H.)
Intervale (N.H.)
Jackson (N.H.)
Los Angeles (Calif.)
New Hampshire
White Mountains (N.H. and Me.)
Washington, Mount (N.H.)
Subject
United States
Cuba
Mexico
Mountain passes
Mountains
Postcards
Railroads
Railroads
West (U.S.)
Occupation
Activity
Photographers

Corporate Body

Active 1866

Active 1969

Americans

English

Information

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