The first true color photograph was made in 1861! James Clerk Maxwell wanted to take a photograph of a tartan ribbon. He was really into being Scottish, I guess.
The celebrated scientists took a picture of the tartan ribbon three times, each time with a different color filter over the glass lens of his camera. The three images were developed then projected onto a screen together, aligned one on top of the other, to produce a single colored image.
There was no way to actually print the photograph until years later. But hey, Maxwell made the history books, and that’s what matters, right?
