Inventor Spotlight: Frederic Eugene Ives

This month, C4IP is recognizing Frederic Eugene Ives, whose prolific inventions pioneered several technological leaps in photography.

  • Ives was born in 1856 in Litchfield, Connecticut, and became involved with photography from a young age – first as an apprentice at the Litchfield Enquirer, and later as a leader of the photographic laboratory at Cornell University.
  • His first major invention was the half-tone photoengraving process, patented in 1881, which allowed newspapers and magazines to print photographs for the first time.
  • Ives later invented and patented the first process for color photography in 1915.
    • In total, he amassed 70 patents throughout his career, including numerous improvements to his color photography system.
  • Ives’s innovations helped photography become the massive phenomenon it is today, with more than 5 billion photographs being taken around the world each day.
    • In the U.S. alone, over 50,000 people earn their livelihoods from photography.
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