© Frank H. Jump
An extensive history is provided on Robert Baptista’s colorantshistory.org
Here are some excerpts from his letter to me:
Frank –
Thanks for allowing the use of your photos at my website. I have posted the Kohnstamm plant photo and the Reckitt’s Blue photo, with links to you, at my web page. I will add the new shots as soon as they become available at your web site.
The history of other Brooklyn dye companies is available at my web page. Some of the buildings, such as Beckers Aniline on Ditmas Ave., are still in use today. Have you photographed any of these locations?
The NYC TV show “Secrets of New York” is preparing a documentary based on my web site on the Brooklyn Dye Industry. It will include scenes filmed at the Kohnstamm plant. I think the program will air sometime in 2008. When I find out I will let you know. I’m really glad to find someone who shares my interest in industrial archaeology.
Best regards,
Robert
Robert- Looking forward to future collaborations!
[…] Frank Jump, photographer, has documented the fading commercial ads painted on the old buildings of Brooklyn. His photos of the derelict H. Kohnstamm food dye plant in Red Hook, closed for 20 years, well illustrate the demise of American dye manufacturing. You can see his haunting images at http://fadingad.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/h-kohnstamm-revisited-historical-website-on-colourants-dyes…. […]
[…] Brewing Company – Mo…Lidian on Old Dutch Brewers, Inc. – East…colorantshistory.org… on H. Kohnstamm in Red Hook Revis…Pete, Joliet, IL on Old Dutch Brewers, Inc. – East…dionysis on the design shop xavier […]
Very europhiliac: sort of faded look like old jeans and the history is very important: even if the chemistry was relatively unbenign for the environment.
The record keeping of business uses and land-use is terribly important for social and actual history keepings especially as NO industrial plants get heritage listing: in this sense there is no Protectionism for History. here in melbourne we have a lot of relict warehouses getting transmogrified into “condo” or bespoke housing: old silos, warehousing for wool, leather, wax & candlemaking, tallowing. fullering etc, timber and associated electro-plating, glassworks. There are also a lot of signs near railway lines especially on rooftops : Perrault rubber tire, robur tea, local steel and pharmaceuticals etc. there are also relict disused telecommunications pits and cables: just last week I chanced on a great UK site detailing different telegraphic systems: obviously tieing in your weblinks will get people jiving. maybe some old colour catalogs of the authentic dies and a bitb of history on how the plant operated the culture and ethnography of workers and their travails: teh economics, proximity to docks and rail etc and urban changes since. My great granduncle established a glassworks here in melbourne and had a diverse range of products which reveal much of their “period in history” ; I am researching the same: the products, the working conditions, thw work culture etc ( we are talking circa 1880- 1935) hence my enthusiasm. Keep up the great work and hope you get more of the praise you deserve” maybe even a “how to do like what we’ve done” in the blog. Often there are “hidden stories in the structural engineering, the building assembly methods etc. Are you having paint smaples done & tested? will the walls be subject to heritage orders/ will a “truth panel” (ie sample area) be left untouched for future genrations?
regards
Andrew I architect & amateur urban historian