The World's First Color Films

The National Media Museum in Bradford, U.K. has recently discovered what it believes are the world's first color films, produced by a method patented by the photographer Edward Turner and his financial backer Frederick Marshall Lee in 1899. The technique involved photographing successive frames through blue, green, and red filters, and then recombining the images to produce full color moving pictures. Current staff at the museum utilized digital technology to reproduce the films for screening in a manner that has not been experienced in over 100 years. For a timeline of the Turner & Lee color process, visit the museum website.