The Don Englebreston Collection

Paired Hand-Tinted Studio Portraits, Young Woman and Young Man, circa 1949 (Mel Swanson Family Collection)

Paired Hand-Tinted Studio Portraits, Young Woman and Young Man, circa 1949 (Mel Swanson Family Collection)

Two hand-tinted studio portraits from the late 1940s, part of the Mel Swanson family photo collection. Such tinted portraits, produced by retouching black-and-white prints with translucent oil colors, were a popular and affordable alternative to true color photography in the era before color film became widely accessible. Project: 219140