Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Industry & Commerce, People

Location

65 Spruceton Rd, West Kill, NY 12492, USA

Lat/Long

42.207632, -74.385332

Grant Recipient

Greene County Historical Society

Reverend Levi Hill (1816-1865) was an early pioneer of color photography. Initially the renderings Hill created were called heliochromes, but soon took on the last name of their inventor to became known as hillotypes. Hill performed his experiments while also serving as the minister of the West Kill Baptist Church from 1837 to 1846. He published a book about his work, entitled “A Treatise on Heliochromy,” in 1856. An inside page of the book explains its contents:

…elaborate essays on the theory of light and colors, the chemistry of heliochromy, and the entire range of the author’s nine years’ experience in sun coloring.

Unfortunately, Hill passed away at the age of 48 in 1865.