Cyanotype

Cyanotypie, Dictyota dichotoma, by Anna Atkins

Sir John F.W. Herschel: Lady with a harp, 1842

Cyanotype photogram on linen by Kate Cordsen. 2016 at Florence Griswold Museum

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process, which produces prints that are blue. John Herschel discovered the process in 1842. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

Cyanotype Media

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  Architectural drawing blueprint, Canada, 1936

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  Cyanotype postcard, Racine, Wis., c. 1910

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  Anna Atkins, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, cyanotype, 1843-53

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  Edward Steichen (1904) Midnight Lake George or Road into the Valley – Moonrise.

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  Bertha Evelyn Jaques, Untitled, c. 1900, cyanotype, NGA 136408

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  Catherine Jansen (1981) The Blue Room, cyanotype on fabric, mixed media.