Program of Color Science/Munsell Color Science Laboratory

The Munsell Color Company was founded by Professor Albert H. Munsell, the creator of the Munsell Color Order System and the Munsell Book of Color. The directors of the Munsell Color Company eventually sold the company's assets and created the Munsell Color Foundation. The Foundation was charged with furthering the scientific and practical advancement of color knowledge.

In 1983, the Foundation trustees voted to dissolve the foundation, and donate the proceeds to an academic institution for the creation and endowment of the Munsell Color Science Laboratory. RIT was selected as the recipient of this donation, and MCSL was born. (Note: There is no formal relationship between the RIT Munsell Color Science Laboratory and the commercial Munsell Color products sold by X-Rite.)

The creation of MCSL was in large part due to the efforts of Franc Grum, the first MCSL Director (currently Prof. Mark Fairchild) and R.S. Hunter Professor of Color Science, Appearance, and Technology (currently Prof. Roy Berns). Prior to founding MCSL and RIT’s Department of Color Science, Professor Grum was a member of the Munsell Color Foundation, long-standing friend of RIT as an employee of the Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories, and an Adjunct Professor in the Photographic Science Department.

Initially, MCSL and the Color Science Department were part of RIT's College of Graphics Arts and Photography. RIT later created the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, and MCSL became a research laboratory within that Center, currently housed in RIT's College of Science. In 1989, MCSL and the Center for Imaging Science moved to a new facility with approximately 6,500 square feet of space dedicated to color science research and education.

In the spring of 2003, space opened up in a nearby building. After extensive renovations, MCSL and the Color Science program moved into what is now formally called the Color Science Hall. The collocation of all our offices and laboratory space has fostered an amazing collaborative spirit in what was already an exciting, cooperative organization.

After careful strategic review of color science at RIT, the Program of Color Science (PoCS) and Munsell Color Science Laboratory (MCSL) were more closely joined as a stand-alone multidisciplinary graduate program in the College of Science. This new chapter in the storied history of these programs began in 2013, 30 years after the lab’s founding, with an aim of further extending the reach of color science across more scientific disciplines and into even more application areas.

"Nulli Secundus"

The Franc Grum Memorial Scholarship was established after his untimely death in 1985. It is intended to support scholarship in optical radiation measurements and color science. The funds for this award were made possible by gifts from the friends and family of Franc, as well as from industry. The scholarship is no longer presented as a separate award to individuals, but rather used to fund tuition for Color Science students in need.

Professor Munsell was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 6th, 1858 and died June 28th, 1918 at age 60. Author of A Color Notation (1905) and the Atlas of the Munsell Color System (1915). Both an artist of distinction and a gifted teacher of art, he developed the first widely-accepted color order system to make the description of color accurate and convenient and to aid in the teaching of color. The Munsell color order system has gained international acceptance and has served as the foundation for other color order systems.

Albert Munsell founded the Munsell Color Company in 1917. Later, in 1942, the Munsell Color Foundation was formed by the company to promote the advancement of the science of color. Ultimately, the Munsell Color Foundation led to the founding of this laboratory, the Munsell Color Science Laboratory, in 1983, at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

About the Portrait

Unfortunately, no high-quality photo of Professor Munsell is available. In 1998, Munsell graduate student Doug Corbin restored the photo from Munsell's book, A Color Notation. The details of the procedure appeared in the February 1999 issue of Color Research and Application. Doug has provided the following information pertaining to this restoration:

The full text of the CR&A submission can be found here.
The LARGE uncorrected image can be found here. (21MB TIFF file)
The scientific diaries of Albert Munsell are available here.

For some other insights into the work of Professor Munsell, here is a self-published work form 1907 entitled, "Color and an Eye to Discern it." This was provided by Rolf Kuehni, who originally retrieved it from The Hagley Museum and Library.