Scrapbook of Chromolithography Samples

Chromolithography is a printing technique that uses multiple lithographic plates to produce a full-color image. In lithography, an image is drawn on a smooth plate with a grease pencil; as the grease repels water, water-based inks will only adhere to the plain areas of the printing plate and the actual print is a negative image of the plate. Chromolithographs use a series of plates to layer colors into a single image. As many as 40 plates might be used in a fine art chromolithograph. First described in 1818, it was the first commercially scalable and (relatively) inexpensive color printing technique. Chromolithography was widely used for artistic and advertising printing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Due to their vibrant colors and wide availability, chromolithographic printed objects were often repurposed into scrapbooks. Trade cards, post cards, greeting cards and small prints of all kinds were reused to produce collages. This scrapbook is just such a collection; however, most of the material assembled to produce the scrapbook was never pasted in. From the many loose objects found tipped into the scrapbook, the majority of those bearing an address were sent to Esther Wedd, who appears to be Frances Esther Wedd of Jersey City, New Jersey. Frances’ son, Benjamin, was a freight agent for the Erie Railroad at Avoca, New York and then, starting in 1920, in Rochester. As Frances lived with her son and daughter in law in Rochester, this explains how the scrapbook traveled to Rochester from Jersey City. Benjamin’s daughter, Esther, was a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology as a nutritionist; it seems likely that her connection to RIT led to the donation of the scrapbook there.