The First Colour Photographic Image
The strategy for producing full-colour projected images was outlined by Maxwell in a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1855, published in detail in the Society’s Transactions in 1857.
In 1861 the photographer Thomas Sutton, working with Maxwell, made three images of a tartan ribbon using red, green and blue, filters in front of the camera lens.
The set of Maxwell’s black-and-white slides are on permanent display in the museum at Maxwell’s Birthplace.
The video is an animated demonstration of the process, using a tartan rosette, made by Prof. Ron Pethig.