Photographs of the famous candy-striped lighthouse at the United States’ easternmost point are very common. Only rarely, however, are such photos dated. In this instance the photographer recorded the date as 1949. The tower, lightkeepers’ house and utility building toward the right look much the same as in 2010 except for colors, but the closest building, called a barn, was taken down decades earlier. Grand Manan Island, Canada, is visible on the horizon.

This is a wood-framed dye transfer color print from a color transparency, the only readily available technology for very large color enlargements at the time. Three color-separation jel-like positives absorbed the three primary color dyes which were transferred one after another onto the final printing paper.