James Clerk Maxwell is credited with creating the first color photograph in 1861, having Thomas Sutton photograph a tartan ribbon through red, green, and blue filters and projecting the three images simultaneously.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent sources including the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation, Wikipedia, and Artsy, all corroborating the 1861 tartan ribbon demonstration using red, green, and blue filters. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- History of photography | History, Inventions, Artists, & Facts - Britannica (seed:geography_and_travel)
- http://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/html/first_colour_photographic_image.html (corroboration)
- https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-worlds-first-color-photograph (corroboration)