by Jerry James Stone

When you think of photos from the early 1900's, you probably don't picture them in color. They're probably more akin to Leave it to Beaver. But, in fact, color photography has been around since the late 1800's.

One early adopter of color photography was Frederick Eugene Ives. Ives was best known at the time for inventing halftone printing. He also invented the Photochromoscope system. It was his first color process--one that was too expensive and complex--and therefore a commercial failure.

But Ives' work on the Photochromoscope did, however, lead to hundreds of color photos between the 1890s and 1910s. The pictures shown here were taken in October, six months after the great earthquake. Most of the photos taken were from the Majestic Hotel, roof but these images are at street level.

Source: Smithsonian