This late-19th century photochrome print is from “Views of the Austro-Hungarian Empire” in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It shows the National Theater in Prague or, as it was known at that time, the Bohemian National Theater. The building was designed in a Neo-Renaissance style by Josef von Zitek (1832-1909), professor of civil engineering at the technical college in Prague. Construction began in 1868 and was completed in 1881. Shortly after the grand opening, a fire destroyed much of the building, but the theater was rebuilt in less than two years, financed by contributions from the public. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr. and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. They obtained the exclusive rights to use the Swiss "Photochrom" process for converting black-and-white photographs into color images and printing them by photolithography. This process permitted the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American market. The firm became the Detroit Publishing Company in 1905.
<br>Cities and towns; Theaters; Vltava River (Czech Republic)
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<ul><li>Gallery: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2630/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2630/</a></li></ul>