This Science Saturday we present Munsell Book of Color; Glossy Finish Collection, published in Baltimore in 1966 by the Kollmorgen Corporation, Macbeth Color and Photometry Division.
Albert Henry Munsell (1858-1918) was an American artist and professor who is best known for creating the Munsell Color System, a scientific approach to the organization of color. In the early 20th century Munsell devised a system to communicate color easily and accurately. The Munsell Color System identifies color in terms of three attributes: hue, value and chroma. The introduction of Munsell Book of Color explains:
The three attributes of color are arranged into orderly scales of equal visual steps.
The hue (H) notation of color indicates its relation to a visually equally-spaced scale of 100 hues. There are ten major hues (five principle and five intermediate) positioned ten hue steps apart within this scale. The hue notation in general use is based on the ten major hue names: Red, Yellow-Red, Yellow, Green-Yellow, Green, Blue-Green, Blue, Purple-Blue, and Red-Purple.
The value (V) notation indicates the lightness or darkness of a color in relation to a neutral gray scale, which extends from absolute black to absolute white.
The chroma (C) notation indicates the degree of departure of a given hue from a neutral gray of the same value.
The Munsell Color Company was established in 1917 and continues to operate today. The Munsell Color System was adopted by a wide range of industries and even the United States Department of Agriculture uses it to identify soil colors accurately so soil samples can be compared around the world.
Today we are looking at the Glossy Finish Collection of the Munsell Book of Color, which “displays approximately 1450 color standards arranged in slots on charts for forty different hues.”
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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern
