BETWEEN FOUR JUNCTIONS NAOMI PENNEY

One Hour Essay Challenge (Juniors)

Do colours have a history?

On one hand, colours definitely have a history. This is evident as everything that is and ever has been must have a history. In fact, colours have more history than many objects and ideas, as they have been used for a very long time. There is a history to how colours were manufactured, developed and used. For example, Roman Emperors, from the rule of Julius Caesar to the fall of Rome, wore purple togas. These were made of a pigment extracted from clams, a process which was extremely time-consuming and expensive. This has helped develop a connotation between the colour we know as ‘purple’ and the idea of wealth or power. Another event making up the history of colour is when Isaac Newton added the final colours to the rainbow as we know it – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – after refracting white light with a prism to produce a spectrum of seven distinguishable colours. This has had an impact on how humans reference colours, and how they are categorised.

These are key events in the past which have had some impact on the world today, at the centre of which is colour. There are infinite events in history where colour has had an impact on humans and where colour has been developed or manufactured and used to symbolise different things in different religions or cultures. Therefore, colours must have a history.

On the other hand, colours could not possibly have a history. This is purely because colours do not exist as a universal idea and are only refractions of light on objects. This light then travels through the human eye into the retina, which then sends different combinations of reactions from the three cones of vision to the brain, making human beings feel sensations of colour. Some people have different sensations of colour, and an example of this is people born with synesthesia (where colours can be associated with different shapes and letters) or colour blindness (where certain colours cannot be distinguished or colour may not be seen at all).

In this way, colours cannot have a history, as they only exist through human perception, and any events relating to colour that may be considered the ‘history’ of colour are just ways humans have manufactured or categorised this sensation (e.g: Roman Emperors’ purple togas), and are not the history of colour itself. When Isaac Newton developed the rainbow, this was purely based on what he saw, and the human reaction to colour. This may even have been biased, as Isaac Newton had a known affinity for the number seven, and this is a prime example of how the ‘history of colour’ is only the history of human views and reactions to the individual sensation which we as a species refer to as ‘colour’. Therefore, colours cannot have a history.

In conclusion, the answer to the question ‘Do colours have a history?’ depends largely on whether history can only refer to something that is concrete and existed, or whether something that may only be a human perception (and could be different for everyone) may also have a history. If the former is true, then colours do not and cannot have a history, but if the latter is true, then not only colour, but other ideas such as taste and material may also have a history.

To summarise, I believe that colours themselves do not have a history, as colours are only a human perception and exist differently to other living beings and maybe even other humans. Instead, I believe there is a history to how the human race has reacted to and harnessed the sensation of colour, and how this has impacted the world today.