{{short description|Photographic process}} thumb|right|220px|A print made using the Albertype process [[File:Hpc-000033.jpg (0450dd77ed29481491105e38ea320e86).jpg|thumb|right|220px|1920 hand-colored Albertype of Glacier National Park in the United States]] An '''Albertype''' is a picture printed from a type of gelatine-coated plate produced by means of a photographic negative.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Photographic News: A Weekly Record of the Progress of Photography, Volumes 31-32|last=|first=|publisher=|year=1887|isbn=|location=|pages=187}}</ref> The process was invented by Josef Albert,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Mapping the Spectrum: Techniques of Visual Representation in Research and Teaching|last=Hentschel|first=Klaus|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=9780198509530|location=|pages=156}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography|last=Hannavy|first=John|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=9780415972352|location=|pages=}}</ref> a German photographer who owned and directed a studio and photo lab in Augsburg, Germany.<ref name="historicCamera">{{Cite web|url=http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3599|title=Joseph Albert, Photographer at Historic Camera|website=historiccamera.com|access-date=2020-02-19}}</ref>
The technique is similar to collotype, but substitutes the gel plate for the lithographic stone used in collotype.<ref name=":0" /> Heliotype, invented in 1871 by Edwards, is another similar process.<ref name=":0" />
Albert's innovation was to replace the copper or stone with glass, construct a mechanical press, and cover it with another gel layer, silicate mixed with gelatin, in order to produce about two thousand prints from each plate using etching presses and hand rollers. This new process was presented at the 1868 Photographic Exhibition in Hamburg and "albertype" was the name given by Joseph Albert.<ref name=":1">The Historical Society of Pennsylvania [https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaidv18albertype.pdf "Albertype Company]
[https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaidv18albertype.pdf Photographs (1910-1952)"]</ref> This technique was adopted by publishers creating thousands of postcards and viewbooks.
In 1890, Adolph and Herman L. Wittemann founded the Albertype Company, a postcard and viewbook publishing company in Brooklyn, New York City.<ref>"Albertype Co." ''Sent From the Past Postcards.'' Accessed May 5, 2024. http://www.sentfromthepastpostcards.com/publishers/the-albertype-co/.</ref> This company began to use what were then "new technologies" such as the albertype to reproduce photo-mechanical images. At that time they were able to collect negatives from the cities and towns of the United States and came to create more than 25,000 prints from 1890 to 1952.<ref name=":1" />
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Commons category}} Category:Photographic processes dating from the 19th century Category:1869 establishments
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