Stephen H. Horgan

Stephen Henry Horgan (February 2, 1854 – August 30, 1941), was the inventor of the halftone process of engraving while working as the art director for the New York Herald.

Stephen Henry Horgan was born in Norfolk, Virginia on February 2, 1854.

The half-tone method he invented was to use a glass screen with fine lines in it which translated the gradations of an image when placed between a light-sensitive metal plate and a negative. The final image created was a metal picture made of black dots surrounded by white. It is said that he was fired from that job by Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who described the idea as idiotic. Horgan then went over to the rival Daily Graphic which debuted half-tone printing with the first printed photograph of an image of Steinway Hall in Manhattan published on December 2, 1873.

Horgan received the AIGA medal in 1924 for his invention.

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