William South

While he succeeded at commercial work his heart was leading him to new forms of artistic expression. South patented a color photographic process in 1904, similar to gum bichromate, which he called “The Solgram.” South’s work was largely based on subtractive color pioneered by Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron.

With his partner, Hugh O’Donnell,[4] he patented a unique camera, which took three color separation negatives simultaneously, each with a different colored filter (purple, orange and green).

Solgram Camera Patent Drawings

These negatives were used to make full color photographs by treating prepared paper with three different pigments. Each color, red, blue and yellow were printed one layer at a time, registering the image with the negative taken with the corresponding filter.

South took patents on the camera and Solgram process in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Belgium. He founded the Solgram Color-Photo Company on December 21, 1904[5] and began manufacturing printing kits in his factory building on St. Joseph’s Alley in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He promoted the process through demonstrations and exhibitions. The first demonstration of the Solgram was given on December 28, 1903 at a meeting of the Columbia Photographic Society in Philadelphia.[6] He won a bronze medal for his color photographs at the Pennsylvania exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.[7]

He wrote in his pamphlet “The Solgram” A System of Color Photography: “As there is no process of means of producing pictures, which for truthfulness of reproducing nature can rival a water-color drawing executed by master, I have made the aquarelle my standard.”[8]

"Peaches" Solgram Print

South received some interest in the process from the United States Department of Agriculture as well as contemporary artists like Charles E. Dana.[9] However, the process had some drawbacks. It was time consuming to produce and registering the negatives exactly for the three printings was difficult. The Solgram Color Photo Co. was declared defunct by 1910.

In 1911 South filed a complaint[10] against Eastman Kodak Company charging that they were attempting to create a monopoly by limiting their dealers to Kodak products only. South sued Kodak for $100,000 for losses incurred by the Solgram Paper Company and for $200,000 for loss of profits from his patents. Kodak denied the charges. South’s evidence was not convincing enough and judgment was not in his favor.

Undaunted, South opened the Keystone School of Photography in his building on St. Joseph’s Alley in Downingtown in 1910. He offered a nine-month course for $150 which taught students how to operate their own photographic gallery.[11] He also offered an advanced degree in “Artography” a term he coined for photography as a fine art. Naturally the Solgram color process was taught. He did not attract the 200 students he anticipated and closed the Keystone School of Photography down around 1912.