John Gast, “A New Jersey Landscape,” Photo-Stigmograph in The Philadelphia Photographer August 6, 1887. Graphic Arts Collection

John Gast (1842–1896) was brought to the United States from Berlin at the age of six and went on to forged a substantial career as a painter, lithographer, and photomechanical printer. He is primarily remembered for one oil painting, “American Progress” (1872) but more importantly, filed seven new printing patents and was instrumental in establishing several businesses including the Gast Banknote and Lithograph Company (St. Louis); The New York Daily Graphic newspaper; Gast and Company Lithographers (Brooklyn), and the Photochrome Company (also called the Heliochrome Company), which was later purchased in part by Alfred Stieglitz’s father to give his son a stable job.

During the late 1870s, Gast worked with William Kurtz, a master of photomechanical printing and the first American to successfully demonstrate the use of three-color photoengraving. Gast developed his own variant processes and began his own company, publishing New Approved Method of Zinc Etching or Photo-zinc-engraving: A Practical Instructor, How to Make Relief Plates, Adapted Especially for Half Tone Reproductions or Photo-nature Engraving in Connection with the Photo-Stigmographic Apparatus in 1886.

This brought him to the attention of Edward Wilson, editor of The Philadelphia Photographer, who first mentioned Gast’s work in the August 6, 1887 issue. “Much has been written about the steady growth of Photo-engraving and Heliography in general,” commented Wilson, “but this growth, considering the benefit to be derived from these processes, is very slow.” Although he mentions an international group of innovators, it was Gast’s “A New Jersey Landscape” that Wilson used to illustrate his article, noting that the magazine was also advertising the company’s Photo-Stigmography [above].

While Gast had been working in the same field as Wilson for many years, he is incorrectly listed as T. H. Gast, possibly due to the hand-drawn logo. Similarly, when the artist died at the young age of 55, obituaries in multiple papers including the New York Tribune and the Brooklyn Standard print several mistakes. Several credit him as the inventor of the three-colour printing process rather than Kurtz and still others list Gast as establishing the New York Graphic instead of one of their innovative artist/printers. It is not surprising that today, details of his many contributions to the history of printing are misunderstood.

Here is one obituary:

John Gast, a pioneer of the “three-colour” process, died in Brooklyn, N.Y., July 26th, aged fifty-five years. He was born in Berlin, but the family settled in St. Louis. Young Gast returned to Berlin to complete his education. He was graduated from the Royal Academy in Berlin, and returned to St. Louis, where he formed the Gast Lithographic Co. (now Gast-Paul). In three years Gast sold out his interest and went to Paris, where he studied chromo-art under Thürwanger. On returning, he established The New York Daily Graphic in New York in 1871. The Graphic was run successfully for about five years. One of its main features was a page devoted to lithographs made by a special process invented by Mr. Gast. Later on he started the lithographing firm of Gast & Co., now known as Grey & Co. After five years with this company he sold out his interest and started the Photochrome Company. This company used several processes which were invented by Mr. Gast, and soon gained a wide reputation in the lithographic world. He held seven patents on different fine processes for lithographing, but his process which is most widely known is a “three-colour” process. About two years ago Mr. Gast left the Photochrome Company on account of failing health….

“Death of John Gast: He Was a Well-Known Lithographer and Inventor of the Three Color Process,” New-York Tribune July 28, 1896

American Stationer 1886, reprinted in various magazines

The Irish American actress Ada Rehan (born Bidelia Crehan, 1857-1916) first appeared on stage as a last minute stand-in for another actress and went on to become one of this country’s best loved Shakespearean actresses with Augustin Daly’s 5th Avenue Theater Company. She was photographed dozens of times in the posh New York gallery of Napoleon Sarony, including this pose from her role as Katherine in the 1887/88 Taming of the Shrew, which ran in New York for 121 performances.

During the last decades of the 19th century, Canadian-born Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896) was the premier portrait photographer of the United States. From his two studios at 680 Broadway (later 256 Fifth Avenue) and 37 Union Square, a staff of over 30 technicians and artists were well-situated for their primary focus: the actors and actresses of New York City.

Sarony’s photographic prints were featured as the frontispiece for 6 issues of The Philadelphia Photographer (later called Wilson’s Photographic Magazine), including March 1867, February 1884, October 1887, May 1892, January 1893, and February 1897. For most, the meticulous Sarony provided the full edition of several thousand prints from his own studio rather than have Wilson’s team reproduce his negatives. One except to this was the final print in 1897, for the issue commemorating Sarony’s death the previous year. All the magazine’s frontispiece in 1897 were printed on glossy Velox paper, many with a full-bleed, and the shiny surface is very difficult to rephotograph or even to view in person. Earlier photogravure and albumen prints made from the 1888 negative are better.

“The negative from which our prints were made was kindly loaned by the Sarony Publishing Co., of this city, now the owners of Sarony’s collection of negatives of celebrities. We may mention, as of public interest, that an exhibition of the choicest pictures of this immense collection will shortly be held on one of our principal thoroughfares. It will be an artistic treat worthy of a visit to New York. …The Velox prints for our frontispiece were made by Mr. Frank Davies under our supervision. Apart from the excellence of the negative their quality is largely due to the special Velox paper manufactured for our edition by the Nepera Chemical Co., of Nepera Park, N.Y.”

Velox Paper was first manufactured by Dr. Leo H. Baekeland in 1894 by the Nepera Chemical Company in Nepera Park, Yonkers, NY. Five years later, George Eastman of the Kodak company bought the Velox process from Dr. Baekeland for one million dollars and started to manufacture its own brand, also called Solio paper.

Wilson’s Photographic Magazine, February 1897