Deciding on a hotel to stay in, you’re likely to look for a gym, a business center, a continental breakfast or a pool. But a darkroom for guests

A brief history of hotels’ photographic darkrooms

submited by

Style Pass

2024-09-30 20:00:08

Deciding on a hotel to stay in, you’re likely to look for a gym, a business center, a continental breakfast or a pool. But a darkroom for guests?

I was introduced to the idea by a passage in “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America” (Amazon link), and had to look further.

… Holmes provided none of the common areas — the libraries, game parlors, and writing rooms — that the big hotels like the Richelieu and Metropole and the nearby New Julien offered as a matter of routine. Nor did he supply the darkroom facilities that hotels closest to Jackson Park had begun installing to serve the growing number of amateur photographers, so-called “Kodak fiends,” who carried the newest portable cameras.

Though I’m familiar with the term “Kodak fiend,” and I know of many a photojournalist who’s worked with film and paper in a hotel bathroom, I’d never imagined a true darkroom as a hotel amenity.