Comments on: Amazing 70-year-old color photos

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:09:30 +0000

The Library's photostream now has close to 7,500 photos, including a set of color photochroms from 1890-1900 Europe. Here's another Library of Congress exhibit, on unique color photography from Russia in the early 1900's. The photographer Prokudin-Gorskii made his own three lens RGB camera and a projector to match so he could create a slideshow of color photos. The Library digitized the items to be able to combine and display/print them for the first time in decades. Some fantastic photos, like View the entire online exhibit at: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

By: Chrystani

Chrystani — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:46:05 +0000

That last pic…

Damn.
Men and women were hardcore back in the day.

Love it.

By: Bicycle Bill

Bicycle Bill — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:05:14 +0000

I too am an amateur photographer, and seeing these pictures makes me wonder what images will be left of the last ten years or so.

Consider the fact that these pictures, posed or not, exist because
• someone took time to take them.
• they then produced a physical, durable image.
• someone else took then time to save them.

Even in today’s ‘hurry-up’, digitized world the monumental, significant events will certainly still be chronicled…..but I wonder how many shots of everyday life already have been taken, shared, and then deleted, and are now lost forever.

As the science of archaeology has already shown us, it is the ordinary events of everyday life and the detritus of daily living that are more likely to shed information on a culture than all the monuments ever raised and studied.

-”BB”-

reCaptcha – the exorcist

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:40:39 +0000

Great collection of old photos! Thank you very much for sharing this post. I make photo restoration and colorization, but even I didn't understand that these photos were initially black and white! Great work.

By: Jude from Flushing

Jude from Flushing — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:53:51 +0000

The ones identified as actual Kodachrome (of blessed memory) also look like they were taken with a Leica lens; just superb detail! Of course most of these are posed and lit, and probably some of these people are models. The pictures look like they may have been used for “Support the War Effort” campaigns. Only commercial photographers’ and government documentarians’ employers had the money to buy & develop color film. My fave is the Cincinnati boy. No one does depth of field like that any more!

By: Delores

Delores — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:59:01 +0000

Great to see these in colour but remembering the movie ,The Grapes of Wrath there is no resemblance to this man and Henrey Fonda.The thing I find remarkable is that the one of the carpenter seems to almost have a 3D effect.It was great seeing these and wonder with the ability to do this -why were we limited to seeing B&W back then?Was it too exspencive or what?Thanks for this opportunity.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:44:00 +0000

simply amazing. brings our history back to life.

By: Lana Franks

Lana Franks — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:14:00 +0000

Tine in a bottle, no,but frozen forever in these great pics.

By: Larry Williams

Larry Williams — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:20:00 +0000

There are color photos made by Frank Hurley during the ill-fated expedition of Shakleton to the south pole. That was 1914-1917. See them at

sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/natural_world/antarctica/antarctica/anta_shackleton
(To see this put a triple w before it)

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:43:00 +0000

I, too, thought the TVA worker on the damn with the bright blue sky looked like it was shot in a studio. I know that it probably wasn’t, but it looks so rich and fake.