Published: 1912, Washington D.C.

Robert Ridgeway was frustrated with the lack of standard nomenclature for different colors. He took it upon himself to hand dye, cut, and mount hundreds of color rectangles into his book “Color standards and color nomenclature.” Ridgeway hoped that this tome would standardize use and reference of colors. The style of the book did not catch on, but it can be considered an early iteration of the now famous Pantone color blocks.