Design book of the week: 'An American Odyssey' by Marc Walter and Sabine Arqué

First produced between 1888 and 1924, this collection of photochroms and Phostint postcards offered the world the first glimpses of North America's vast and striking landscapes in color.

Using a photolithographic process almost 20 years before the autochrome, the Detroit Photographic Company produced a selection of shots of the people and places of the New World, documenting Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, cowboys and gold rushers.

Now graphic designer, photographer and collector Marc Walter has made his private collection available to the public, joining forces with documentarian and iconographer Sabine Arqué to create An American Odyssey, set for release in May.

Iconic images of San Francisco's Chinatown, Coney Island and the saloons of the Wild West provide a sweeping panoramic overview of the continent as it was more than a century ago.

Also represented are the Great Lakes, towering forests, plains, deserts, canyons and waterfalls of the untouched America of the past.

The tome will be published by Taschen and will retail at €150.

Walter has one of the world's largest collections of vintage travel photographs and photochroms.