We're all familiar with the classic black-and-white (or sepia-toned) portraiture that, for better or worse, defined the image of the American Indian in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Photography was a young artistic medium, yet many photographers were already frustrated by its limitations.
They wanted color, but the technology didn't exist—Kodachrome film wouldn't hit the market until 1935. But that didn't mean color images didn't exist.
Resourceful photographers who wanted their audience to glimpse the vivid colors they saw from behind the lens simply applied color to their monochrome images.
The process was done by hand, using brushes and paint or pastels. The result was not color photos but colored photos.
Source
Hopi herdsmen. Arizona. 1899. Photo by Detroit Photographic Company.
Eagle Arrow. A Blackfoot man. Montana. Early 1900s. Glass lantern slide by Walter McClintock.
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Photography was a young artistic medium, yet many photographers were already frustrated by its limitations.
They wanted color, but the technology didn't exist—Kodachrome film wouldn't hit the market until 1935. But that didn't mean color images didn't exist.
Resourceful photographers who wanted their audience to glimpse the vivid colors they saw from behind the lens simply applied color to their monochrome images.
Striking Bear (detail). Sioux. Early 1900s. Photo by Richard Throssel.
The process was done by hand, using brushes and paint or pastels. The result was not color photos but colored photos.
Source
Sitting Bear KIOWA Warrior
He Dog
Council Chief Bone Necklace, Oglala Lakota, 1899. Photo by Heyn Photo.
BIRD ON THE GROUND
APACHE CHIEF NAICHE
Kills on Horseback, Oglala Sioux, ca. 1899. Hand-colored and photographed by Herman Heyn.
Group at a Potlatch. ca. 1900. British Columbia. Photo by Benjamin W. Leeson.
Chief Strikes With Nose, Oglala Lakota, 1899. Photo by Heyn Photo.
High Hawk, Council Chief, Oglala Lakota. 1899. Photo by Heyn Photo.
Big Man. Northern Arapaho. 1899. Photo by F.A. Rinehart with hand-coloring by Muhr.
James Lone Elk, nephew of Old American Horse. Oglala Lakota. Early 1900s. Colorado. Photo by Heyn Photo.
An Old Crow warrior, possibly Shot in the Hand. Early 1900s. Photo by Richard Throssel.
Chief Left Hand Bear, Oglala Lakota, 1899. Photo by Heyn Photo
Snake Whistle, a young Cheyenne man in dance regalia, Fort Keogh, Montana, 1880. Photo by L.A. Huffman.
Shout At, Oglala Lakota, 1899. Photo by Heyn Photo
Short Bull. Crow. Early 1900s. Photo by Richard Throssel.
HOLLOW HORN BEAR
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