Inventor Name
Levy, Louis and Max
Repository
Hagley Museum and Library
PO Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
1 album (58 cyanotypes) ; 21.5 x 16.5 cm.
Summary
The brothers Louis Edward Levy (1846-1919) and Max Levy (1857-1926) founded a photoengraving business in Baltimore in 1875. In 1877 they moved to Philadelphia and reorganized the firm as the Levytype Company. Here they introduced their invention (jointly patented on January 4, 1875) of a new photochemical engraving process, which they called "Levy-type". In 1887, Louis E. Levy, assisted by his brother, invented the engraved glass grating known as the "Levy line screen," which became universally used for producing half-tone photoengravings. This was of immense value to the field of graphic arts. Other inventions followed, most notably the acid blast, or etching machine, in 1897, and the etch-powdering machine in 1901. In 1900 the firm was renamed the Graphic Arts Company, and the brothers added a printing and publishing department to their business. The Album contains miscellaneous personal cyanotype photographs. Included are views of a house in Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania Academy of Natural Science; scenes in Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, Concord, Northboro, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, including exterior photographs of the Alcott House and the Hawthorn house in Concord, and the Jonathan Fairbanks House in Dedham; a biology class at M.I.T.; miscellaneous snapshots of children and other people; an unidentified photographer and his camera; and miscellaneous interiors.