David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction

Unknown artist

This collection documents the history of photomechanical printing from its development in 1826 through the perfection of three-color printing at the beginning of the twentieth century. All major intaglio, planotype, and relief printing methods are represented. The collection includes examples of virtually all categories of photographically-illustrated books, reports, accounts, treatises, catalogues, pamphlets, and ephemera. Pioneering firms and individual innovators are represented in equal numbers. While the subject matter is particularly rich in American material, numerous European examples, including Blanquart-Evrard's monumental survey of photography and photomechanical illustration (1870) and the photolithographs of Simoneau and Toovey in Spa et ses environs (1863), round out the collection.