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from the group: Cyanotype

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Pre-photographic

Intaglio
Planographic
Relief

Photomechanical

Collotype
Letterpress
Offset Lithography
Photogravure
Rotogravure
Woodburytype

Photographic

Albumen
Ambrotype
Bromoil
Bromoil Transfer
Carbon
Carbro
Chromogenic
Collodion POP
Cyanotype
Daguerreotype
Direct Carbon (Fresson)
Dye Imbibition
Gelatin Dry Plate
Gelatin POP
Gum Dichromate
Instant (Diffusion Transfer)
Instant (Dye Diffusion Transfer)
Instant (Internal Dye Diffusion Transfer)
Matte Collodion
Platinum
Salted Paper
Screen Plate
Silver Dye Bleach
Silver Gelatin DOP
Tintype
Wet Plate Collodion

Digital

Electrophotography
Inkjet
Thermal

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Notes on this view:

The cyan tone of this snapshot image is a product of the cyanotype process, which uses ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue) to form an image. This print is one of two prints mounted back-to-back on a green piece of construction paper, suggesting the prints were likely in an album at one point.

Sir John Herschel invented the cyanotype process in 1842. The process was briefly used in the 1840s to make camera-less prints, or photograms, most notably for scientific purposes. The process experienced a resurgence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries corresponding with the introduction of roll film. Both the cyanotype and roll film appealed to a new class of amateur photographers. The image shown here was made around 1910 with a roll film camera that shoots a 2 1/4 x 2 3/4 image. Cyanotype paper was commercially available and did not require any processing chemicals, only a thorough wash in water after exposure.