Call Number:

4662

Repository:

The Historical and Interpretive Collections of The Franklin Institute

Extent:

4.16 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

1870-1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Ives, Frederic Eugene, 1856-1937

Abstract:

Frederic Eugene Ives (1856-1937) was a scientist and inventor known for his work in color photography. Frederic E. Ives papers, 1870-1938, consist of photographs, materials from the Hess-Ives Corporation, approximately a dozen scrapbooks, and other materials.

Frederic Eugene Ives (1856-1937) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1856 and ten years later moved to Norfolk, CT. From 1868 to 1870 he was an apprentice to a printer at the Litchfield Enquirer, where he became interested in photography. When he was 18 he was placed in charge of the photographic library at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. While at Cornell, Ives developed an early half-tone process using a gelatin relief.

By 1879, Ives was living in Philadelphia, PA and working at photographic company Crosscup and West. He married Mary Elizabeth Olmstead that same year. While in Philadelphia he continued to improve the half-tone process he had developed at Cornell, and in 1885 he went public with his half-tone system of developing photographic negatives. Five years later, he invented Kromskop, a system of color photography. In 1903, he invented a short-tube microscope, and in 1912 he invented Tripak, a color camera. His wife, Mary passed away in 1904 and he married Margaret Campbell Cutting in 1913. Ives passed away in Philadelphia in 1937. His son, Herbert Eugene Ives (1882-1953) was also a scientist and inventor, known for being a pioneer of television and telephotography, including color facsimile.

Bibliography:

Mathisen, David. "Frederic Eugene Ives and Herbert Eugene Ives Papers: A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress." Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. 2010. Accessed September 8, 2016. http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2010/ms010111.pdf.

Frederic E. Ives papers, 1870-1938, consist of photographs, materials from the Hess-Ives Corporation, approximately a dozen scrapbooks, and other materials.

There are dozens of glass negatives, color transparencies, stereograms, prints, and other types of photographs depicting various subjects. Some are in color and some are in black and white and some images are sandwiched between glass.

There are several materials from the Hess-Ives Corporation, a company Ives formed with Henry Hess around 1914 to promote the Hess-Ives process, a method of producing color photographs on paper (hichrography). Documents from the Hess-Ives Corporation date from circa 1914 to 1939 and include a business scrapbook, minutes, correspondence by-laws, shareholder documents, legal papers, and other business related records.

The collection also includes several publications with articles about Ives or by him and several scrapbooks including a 1926 clippings scrapbook about his professional life; a scrapbook about photography and processes he was interested in; and other scrapbooks with clippings on similar topics, 1885-1887, 1892, 1922. Some scrapbooks have handwritten notes and there is a box containing loose items pulled from the scrapbooks. There are also materials relating to heliochromy, 1890-1893, and several obituaries for Ives, circa 1937. An inventory is available on-site.