the Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, 7th ed. In the next edition, they were split in the Rhodospirillaceae (Pfennig and Triiper, 1971) and the Chromatiaceae (Bavendamm, 1924), respectively.

Then, the term Chromatiaceae was used for the first time by Bavendamm in 1924, in particular as referred to all those purple bacteria which follow the pathway of anoxygenic photosynthesis,