Colorized History

Reddit has a category where people colorize historic photos.  Here are some of the interesting ones....

President Theodore Roosevelt in his office, 1901.


 
Charlie Chaplin, 1916




View from the Nashville, Tennessee, capitol building, 1864.




Hancock homestead, Sun River, Montana, July, 1910




Public Square in Cleveland, Ohio, 1910




Broadway, New York, 1915




Western Showman Buffalo Bill, 1889





Civil War soldiers, 1862




Abraham Lincoln, 1865




Lewis Powell, conspirator in the Lincoln assassination, 1865




Mark Twain, 1900

Oh wow!

This is neat, but it seems odd too.

How so, Cheryl?

it does seem werid looking at it in clour

I think it is very neat. It is SO different seeing them in color.

Seeing these people in color makes them seem far less... distant.

Rob wrote:

How so, Cheryl?

It makes these historical photographs seem more like someone fictionalized the events instead of adding color to historical photos. I assume it would work the same way if you had actors dress up in period clothing and took a black and white photo. Of course, the quality of the photo would be much improved. I understand what you're saying about it makes them seem far less distant. For me, however, it's a shame to modernize them. You lose that authenticity.

You know what I bought recently? A late 1930s, early 1940s manual typewriter. My daughter wanted one, so I bid on it at eBay. The thing smells like an old bookstore. I love it! You can't buy that smell.

Although the authenticity of the photos may be lost, I feel that the authenticity of the people is improved on.  The colorized shots show them more as they really were than the B&W ones do.

Neat typewriter!

Rob wrote:

Although the authenticity of the photos may be lost, I feel that the authenticity of the people is improved on.  The colorized shots show them more as they really were than the B&W ones do.

I see what you're saying. I can't argue with that. Well, I'm a woman, so I could probably argue anything--or so my hubby says.  

Lisa wrote:

Lewis Powell looks like a contemporary maniac - like he could have traveled through time to go back and try to help assassinate Lincoln.

Now, that would make for an interesting story.

They look fake...

Amazing technology that brings those photos to life......Civil War.....

Lisa wrote:

I think it's VERY cool to see these in color...and also quite surreal. I'm so used to seeing them in rather one-dimensional settings...The color seems to make it so that suddenly they're living, breathing people who actually looked pretty much like we do.  

Cheryl, I can understand what you're saying. When our currency changed, it looked like fake money to me.  So I can understand why such a drastic change in the photos would make it seem . . . phony or fictionalized to you.

Ha! I can't get over Buffalo Bill's shirt! He SO would take a lot of ribbing about that "purty shirt" nowadays. And Charlie Chaplin?? I would NOT have recognized him. Lewis Powell looks like a contemporary maniac - like he could have traveled through time to go back and try to help assassinate Lincoln.

I love the shot of Broadway in the early 1900s. SO pretty.

The Broadway, New York is my favorite!  I want to BE there!  

It's interesting, to hear Cheryl's take and Rob's take.  As soon as I read Cheryl's comment that "This is neat, but odd too," I totally 'got it'.  That is exactly how I felt---odd in some way.  And like Alex said, 'fake'.  And yet, people did not live in black and white---they DID live in color back then.  So if anything, it's more realistic than 'fake'.  And yet, if felt 'fake' to me too!  By the same token, I felt more like I could reach out and touch these people; as Rob said, they feel less distant.  So wow, talk about strange emotions these pictures stir up!

Dave, I love this last one you posted!

The World War II color photos freak me out.
As a kid in the late fifties and early sixties you would always see this stuff in black and white in documentaries. Erie seeing it in color, especially this evil bunch!

Oh wow, I can see why, Dave. That really is creepy!