Relating to the past can be difficult when all you have to look at are faded black and white photos that feel like they are from another planet. The mind thinks and remembers in color, meaning a color photograph is much easier to connect with than a black and white photo.
Thanks to film colorization historic photos restored to full color bring new life to history. Film colorization is a process that can be conducted digitally or by hand. Prior to the 1970’s basic colorization was possible but required carefully painting color onto film stock.
The invention of the computer has completely altered the way we restore historic photos thanks to digital colorization. While the process is still time-consuming it is very much worth the hard work.
Research is conducted to match colors as closely to how they really looked as possible, but in some cases artists must guess which colors to use. You can learn how to colorize black and white photos yourself, click here to learn more.
1. Times Square, D-Day, 1944
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
2. Ojibwe Native American out spearfishing in Minnesota, 1908
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
3. Mother assists her child getting off the trolley on Broadway in New York City, this photo was taken in July, 1913
Photo Credit: mygrapefruit
4. Post officers from Washington, D.C. enjoying their new “Autopeds” in 1917
Photo Credit: ExtraNoise
5. Joe Lincoln of Accord, champion decoy maker of New England poses with his decoy ducks in 1926
Photo Credit: Jordan J. Lloyd/ Dynamichrome
6. Photo of Abraham Lincoln Taken by Alexander Gardner in February of 1865
Photo Credit: zuzahin
7. Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia, sling cart used to transport artillery captured throughout the American Civil War
Photo Credit: zuzahin
8. Yvonne (13) and Alexander Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (12) enjoy a drink and smoke aboard a yacht near Majorca
Photo Credit: Bennity
9. Man drinking water at a ‘Colored’ water cooler in streetcar terminal. This photo was taken in Oklahoma City in July of 1939
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
10. Soldiers wear gas masks while peeling onions at Tobruk, October 15, 1941
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
11. Children watch in fear as their neighborhood is bombed in Minsk, Belorussia. The bombing took place as a part of Operation Barbarossa, June, 1941
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
12. John F. Kennedy following his graduation ceremony at Harvard, summer, 1940
Photo Credit: zuzahin
13. Captain Walter “Waddy” Young poses with his crew alongside caricatures drawn on their B-29 Superfortress, November 24, 1944
Photo Credit: Captain-Cliche
14. Stalin and Churchill at the Livadia Palace during the Yalta Conference in February of 1945
Photo Credit: zuzahin
15. Louis and Lucille Armstrong at the Sphinx on January 28, 1961
Photo Credit: Jordan J. Lloyd, Dynamichrome