Now here is something truly amazing. The Boston Globe reports on a set of color photos of the Russian empire from around 1910. How did this happen, you ask? Well…

Back in the early 20th century, between 1905 and 1910, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a scientist and a photographer, had the idea of educating school children about the current state of Russia – it’s cultural diversity and progression into modern times – using photographs. His technique was interesting; he would take three black and white shots, one with a red filter, one with a blue and one with a green. He would then use a projector with the appropriate filters to project each image, perfectly aligned, to composite back into a color image.

Sergei had the support of Tsar Nicholas II as well. The Tsar provided him with a mobile darkroom on a railroad car. This allowed him to cover a vast area in his project, capturing a snapshot of the Russian Empire as it existed at the time.

The complete Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection is also available at the Library of Congress’ website, and you can read more about Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii on wikipedia.

Russia in color, a century ago (Boston Globe)