Photos of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century in color

The library of the American Congress stores a collection of photographs of the Russian Empire, taken in 1909-1910 by a certain Prokudin-Gorsky.

I was struck by the quality of images and, most importantly, the fact that the photos are colored! After all, the first color cameras appeared on the free market only in the 30s. And then there was no empire.

It turns out in 1861, James Clark Maxwell discovered that if you take 3 photographic shots through red, green and blue filters, and then superimpose them on each other, you get a full-color image.

It was this invention that formed the basis for amazingly beautiful pictures of the architecture and life of the Russian Empire.

More information about the photographs and the history of their creation can be found on the website of the Library of Congress .