{"id":1049,"date":"2011-02-27T01:00:42","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info-libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2023-07-10T16:34:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T16:34:28","slug":"1912","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/02\/27\/1912\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 52 – 1912: Color Standards and Color Nomenclature by Robert Ridgway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published: Washington, 1912<\/p>\n

Desirous for a book that would finally standardize colors and their names, Robert Ridgway, an ornithologist, took upon himself the mammoth task of producing just such a volume \u2013 covering more than a thousand colors. \u00a0The enduring value of his labor is evidenced by the naturalists and artists who, a century later, continue to use it as a standard reference. \u00a0Much of this value must certainly lie in the work\u2019s impressive display of color itself: distributed among 53 plates is a true sample for every one of the 1,115 colors Ridgway has named.<\/p>\n

The challenge of producing stable true color samples for publication is daunting, and an MIT librarian seems to have appreciated the risk of color loss: a handwritten note in our copy directs the reader to a warning that the samples should be protected from prolonged exposure to light.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nPerhaps even more daunting, however, is the challenge of imposing standard naming conventions on colors that have already been marketed under countless proprietary names. \u201cMost of them are invented,\u201d Ridgway writes of trade names of colors, \u201capparently without care or judgment, by the dyer or manufacturer of fabrics, and are as capricious in their meaning as in their origin; for example: such fanciful names as \u2018zulu,\u2019 \u2018serpent green,\u2019 \u2018baby blue,\u2019 \u2018new old rose,\u2019 \u2018London smoke,\u2019 etc., and such nonsensical names as \u2018ashes of roses\u2019 and \u2018elephant\u2019s breath.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This sort of confusion no doubt continues today \u2013 you need only consult a box of crayons \u2013 but Ridgway\u2019s work paved the way for the recourse found in today\u2019s international color standards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Find it in the library<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published: Washington, 1912 Desirous for a book that would finally standardize colors and their names, Robert Ridgway, an ornithologist, took upon himself the mammoth task of producing just such a volume \u2013 covering more than a thousand colors. \u00a0The enduring value of his labor is evidenced by the naturalists and artists who, a century later, continue to use it as a standard reference. \u00a0Much of this value must certainly lie in the work\u2019s impressive display of color itself: distributed among 53 plates is a true sample for every one of the 1,115 colors Ridgway has named. The challenge of producing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}