The Colorful Past of Old Russia: Prokudin-Gorskii's Photo Collection Reconstructed

Almost all photos from around the early 20th century are in black and white. However, Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a pioneering Russian photographer, developed an ingenious photographic technique for generating color images. His color images, reconstructed from his original glass negatives, provide an extraordinary look at early 20th-century Russia. You can find his photos as part of the Library of Congress online exhibit, The Empire That Was Russia.

The Russia of Nicholas II on the eve of World War I was a land of striking ethnic diversity. Comprising all of the republics of what later was to become the Soviet Union, as well as present-day Finland and much of Poland, Russia was home to more than 150 million people — of which only about half were ethnic Russians. In his travels throughout the empire, Prokudin-Gorskii captured this diversity.

Dagestan is a Russian republic in the North Caucasus region on the Caspian Sea. Here is an image of Dagestani women around 1905:

Another image shows an Armenian woman in her national costume:

Daily Life
In the early 1900s Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire which won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation. One of Prokudin-Gorskii’s goals was to capture the daily life of the Russian people.

The following image shows a Russian family resting in a hay field during harvest time:

Another image shows Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, Uzbekistan:

Another image taken in 1910 shows a family working at a pit mine in Bakalskii, which is in the Bakaly Hills of the Ural Mountains:

Color Photographic Technique
Prokudin-Gorskii's process used a camera that took a series  of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different-colored filter. Each negative contains the color value for each RGB component. In Photoshop terminology, these 3 images represent RGB channels. In fact, adventurous Photoshop users have recreated Prokudin-Gorskii's color images by combining the digitized versions of the RGB negatives as layers with specific channel values.

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Given the complex process of printing color images at the time, Prokudin-Gorskii often displayed his images using a special projection lantern with three lenses. By projecting all three monochrome negatives using the correct colored light, and then overlapping the images, he was able to reconstruct the original color scene.

Library of Congress Exhibits
The Library of Congress offers a wide range of online exhibitions featuring treasures from its own collections as well as the treasures of other national libraries. Here are some of the current exhibits available online:

• Exploring the Early Americas
• NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
• Library of Congress Bible Collection

The Enduring Literary Legacy: Carnegie Libraries in Washington State

On several recent trips around Washington state, I stopped by Sound Bend and Port Townsend. I was surprised to discover that both these towns have original Carnegie libraries still in use. In fact, the South Bend library, which is now part of the Timberland Regional Library system, has functioned continuously as a library for over 100 years.

These libraries are a legacy of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist. At the end of the nineteenth century, Carnegie had become the richest man in the world, amassing a $500-million fortune (worth about $200 billion in today’s dollars).

In 1901, he sold his Carnegie Steel Company and retired. However, he decided to use his wealth for the public good. He donated about $350 million to several causes, including the endowment of over 2,500 libraries worldwide. Of these libraries, 44 were funded and built in Washington State between 1901 and 1916.

Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "The Carnegie Formula", which required applicants to:

• Demonstrate the need for a public library
• Provide the building site
• Provide partial support for its operation
• Provide free service to all

Carnegie Libraries in Washington
The first Carnegie library grants were approved for several Seattle area libraries. A $430,000 grant was given for the construction of the original Seattle Central Library, which was razed in 1957.

Of the 44 Carnegie libraries built in Washington (see list), 33 still stand. Of those, 14 still serve their original purpose.

As many of these existing libraries enter their second century of service to their communities, they’ll need to be expanded and modernized. Port Townsend is launching a capital campaign to expand and upgrade the historic Port Townsend Public Library, which would double the library’s existing square footage. Here’s an architectural rendering of the project.

 
Expansions for historic buildings, such as Carnegie libraries, typically preserve the architectural heritage of the building. In 2004, the Carnegie-funded Columbia Branch of the Seattle Public Library was expanded to twice its original size. The new portion of the building extends from the back of the original structure, maintaining the building’s original street presence.

Grand Tour
The Carnegie Library Consortium of Washington is an organization whose mission is to raise awareness of the Carnegie libraries in Washington state and to preserve them for future generations. In 2009, this organization sponsored the Mr. Carnegie’s Grand Tour of Washington — a driving tour of the remaining 33 Carnegie library buildings in Washington. The Grand Tour Guide provides useful info on visiting these historical sites.

So with 2 libraries visited, I have only 31 more to go!