These 64 Colorized Photos From The Past Will Blow You Away

0

Up until the 1970s, color photography was extremely rare, and so when we think about history prior to that time, we often envision it in black and white. Today’s technology now enables us to “colorize” historical photos, giving us our only chance at seeing what the world really looked like back then. And it was truly spectacular.

Take a trip back in time through these photos below.

The Harlem newsboy, originally captured by Gordon Parks.

1

Seeing these photos in color for the first time makes it easy to imagine we could all have been part of a world that we’ve never even seen. It literally changes our perspective of history.

Booker T. Washington in his Tuskegee University office, 1906.

2

Picnickers at a Sarasota trailer park, 1941.

3

Armed troops blocking off a road near an explosion at an oil factory near Texas City, Texas, April 17, 1947.

4

Frank “Slivers” Oakley, the Baseball Clown, 1904.

5

General Robert E. Lee a week after surrendering to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War, April 16, 1865.

6

The Luna Park Promenade in Coney Island, New York, 1905.

7

Louis Armstrong practicing in a dressing room, 1946.

8

Boys buying flowers in Union Square, New York, 1908.

9

The Jersey Shore, 1905.

10

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, 1935.

11

Women painting World War II propaganda posters in Port Washington, New York, July 8, 1942.

12

Portrait of a family near Muskogee, Oklahoma during a drought, August 1939.

13

“Cab Stand” in Madison Square Park, New York, ca. 1900.

14

Norman Rockwell entering his Stockbridge studio in Massachusetts, 1966.

15

A man flipping burgers, 1938.

16

Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial, 1939.

17

Comedian and singer Ernie Hare, expressing his thoughts on Prohibition, ca. 1920.

18

Portrait of Hall-of-Famer John ‘Muggsy’ McGraw, the legendary manager of the N.Y. Giants from 1902 to 1932.

19

“An Oasis in the Badlands”, Red Hawk of the Oglala Sioux on horseback, 1905.

20

College students pile into a Volkswagen Beetle, 1965.

21

Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1904.

22

Tufts University baseball team studio portrait, 1890.

23

Elvis Presley meets secretly with President Nixon, 1970.

24

Buses leave in the shadow of the Washington Monument following the March On Washington, 1963.

25

Brigadier General and actor Jimmy Stewart. Stewart flew 20 combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe, and even flew one mission during Vietnam.

26

Pablo Picasso

27

Lee Harvey Oswald, 1963, being transported to questioning before his murder trial for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

28

Winston Churchill, 1941.

29

Albert Einstein, 1921.

30

Marilyn Monroe

31

Samurai Training 1860.

32

Hindenburg Blimp crash.

33

British Soldiers Returning from the front in 1939.

34

Joan Crawford on the set of Letty Lynton, 1932.

35

Country store in July 1939. Gordonton, North Carolina.

36

Mark Twain in 1900.

37

Albert Einstein on a Long Island beach in 1939.

38

Audrey Hepburn

39

Union Soldiers taking a break 1863.

40

Charles Darwin

41

WWII soldiers on Easter.

42

Clint Eastwood, 1962.

43

W.H. Murphy testing the bulletproof vest in 1923.

44

Charlie Chaplin at age of 27 years old in 1916.

45

Elizabeth Taylor in 1956.

46

Big Jay McNeely, Olympic Auditorium, 1953.

47

Babe Ruth’s 1920 MLB debut.

48

A Washington, D.C. filling station in 1924.

49

Louis Armstrong plays to his wife, Lucille, in Cairo, Egypt 1961.

50

Two Boxers after a fight.

51

1920s Australian mugshots from the New South Wales Police Dept.

52

Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield.

53

Brothers Robert Kennedy, Edward “Ted” Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy outside the Oval Office.

54

Clint Eastwood working on his 1958 Jag XK 120 in 1960.

55

Cornell Rowing Team 1907.

56

View from the Capitol in Nashville, 1864.

57

Baltimore Slums, 1938.

58

Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels scowls at a Jewish photographer, 1933.

59

Henry Ford, 1919.

60

An RAF pilot getting a haircut while reading a book between missions.

61

Unemployed Lumber Worker and His Wife 1939.

62

A car crash in Washington D.C. around 1921.

63

President Lincoln with Major General McClernand and Allan Pinkerton at Antietam in 1862.

64
h/t: vintag.es, reddit, boredomtherapy

If you want more awesome content, subscribe to Design You Trust Facebook page.

More Inspiring Stories

Amazing Landscape-Winning Photos From The Fine Art Photography Awards 2024

Paolo Di Paolo Captured Spectacular Photos Of Italy In The 1950s And 60s

Photographer Documents Stay-At-Home Dads And Their Kids In Sweden

Haunted Faces Of The World War One Brought To Life In Striking Colorized Images By Mario Unger

The Color Of Russian History: Beautiful Vintage Colorized Pictures Of The Imperial Russia By Olga Shirnina

Photographer Captures Intimate Portraits Of Kids Posing With Wild Animals

The Immersive Black and White Photography of David Yarrow

This Guy Shows The Secret Side Of Glamorous Instagram Photos

"Stags Hens & Bunnies": Photographer Dougie Wallace Has Captured Blackpool In All Its Profligate Glory

"New Horizon": The Post-Soviet Landscape Through The Lens Of Rafal Milach

Artist Using Photoshop Technique to Manipulate Bizarre Christmas Photos With Her Beloved Dog

These Hi-Tech Ballet Shoes Demonstrates The Physical Movement Of Dancers’ Feet

Arnold Genthe’s Cats : Women Posing With ‘Buzzer’ From A Century Ago

Japanese Nighttime Factory Photography Will Have You Believing FF7’s Midgar Is Real

GuruShots: Winning Photographs from The Impressive Still Life Contest

Stunning Photos of Peel Trident, The Tiny Car With a Space-Age Dream

Photographer Dieter Klein Captures The Nostalgic Beauty Of Abandoned Cars Across The Europe And United States

10 Colorized Historical Photos Of Famous Landmarks Under Construction

Photographer Gareth James

Someone Is Showing That All Instagram Photos Are Starting To Look The Same And It’s Pretty Freaky

The Finalists Of The 14th Annual Smithsonian Photo Contest

September 16: This Day In Photos From The Past

Rare Photographs Show the Interior of the 1918 German Submarine SM UB-110

Remarkable Photos Of Manhattan By Berenice Abbott From 1935

Stunning Award-Winning Photos from the 2025 Epson International Pano Awards

These Posters Perfectly Sum Up Twentysomethings’ Addiction To The Internet

From 'Full Beards' to '99 Percent Beards', Competition gets Hairy in New York

Winners Of The 2017 National Geographic Travel Photographer Of The Year

These Quirky Kid’s Stools Were Inspired By Farmyard Animals

Fascinating Photographs Capture Daily Life In Russia Just After The Collapse Of The Soviet Union