Early Color

Archives de la Planète · 1909–1931

Archives de la Planète

Albert Kahn sent camera operators across four continents to fix the world on autochrome glass before it changed. Browse 53,172 publicly viewable color photographs from the Archives de la Planète and related early Kahn journeys, each credited to the operator who made it.

A documentation project for the world

Banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched the Archives de la Planète in 1909, sending operators across four continents to record places and communities on Autochrome plates. Historical source terminology is preserved on every record; English labels exist for navigation only.

What this browser includes

The regional Open Data color corpus plus documented public color images from related journeys, including Albert Dutertre's 1908 world trip and the 1909 South America journey associated with Auguste Léon. Black-and-white records are not included.

Read the museum’s English project history

Across the collection

View all color photographs

Data generated 8/4/2026 · 53,172 publicly viewable color images