Exhibition: Color-Plate Books From the Collection

Vibrant color-plate images were produced in Britain and America from the 1760s to the 1890s. In Franklin’s youth, pictures in color were not widely available because color was an expensive luxury. Colored pictures were usually created by adding watercolor by hand to printed plates. “Living Color: Collecting Color-Plate Books at the Library Company of Philadelphia” exhibits some of the first color-plate books that went through this lavish and time-consuming process.