PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freeman’s next Rare Books & Manuscripts auction takes place on April 4, 2013 and an essential piece of Hollywood history, along with some glitz and glamour, will be offered to film enthusiasts.

Invented in 1916, Technicolor film was an industry standard from 1927-1974, with 1932-1955 known as “The Glorious Age of Technicolor.” The early journals of Leonard Troland and John F. Kienninger chronicle their Technicolor research from 1919-1932 and are estimated at $20,000-30,000. Troland, a graduate of MIT, was chief engineer for Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation and was appointed director of research in 1925, and J.F. Kienninger patented several photographic and cinematographic techniques for Technicolor during his tenure. These journals detail laboratory work for developing "Technicolor Process Number Two,” which was used in filming The Toll of the Sea (1922) and Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924) as well as color sequences in The Ten Commandments (1925), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), and Ben-Hur (1925).

Other diaries by Leonard Troland are currently housed at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film—the country’s third largest film archive. Technicolor donated its historic archive from 1915 to 1974 to the museum in 2010. The museum’s holdings include documents from other Technicolor innovators such as founder Dr. Herbert Kalmus’ notebooks and the research of Dr. John Andreas, former head of Technicolor Research Department.

Other Hollywood and motion picture ephemera in the April 4 sale includes autograph material of Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film actress, who starred in The Toll of the Sea; film director and producer Cecil B. DeMille; and a rare signature from Jean Harlow, whose mother regularly signed her photos for her.