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These colorized monochrome photos will change the way you imagine the past. Since we live and remember in color, a black-and-white image seems almost of another world. Through the process of colorization, that world becomes more familiar, easier to imagine, and easier to connect to.

Film colorization can be done by hand or digitally. Before the 1970’s, the most basic colorization required skillful painting of color directly onto film stock. The advent of computers allowed for digital colorization, a faster but still time-consuming process. In all cases, while there are some clues to the original color, artists often have to research or guess what color to use.

If colorization interests you, then embrace the challenge! The guides here and here will help get you started, and we look forward to seeing your results! We previously wrote about colorization here.

Source: reddit

Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, taken in February, 1865

Image source: zuzahin

Boxing match aboard the U.S.S. New York, July 3, 1899

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Image source: Urban2487

Yvonne (13) and Alexander (12) Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn take drink and smoke on yacht near Majorca

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Image source: Bennity

An Ojibwe Native American spearfishing, Minnesota, 1908

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Image source: Captain-Cliche

Adolf Hitler with Mussolini’s son-in-law and Joachim von Ribbentrop, attend a Nazi Party rally, ca 1930s

Image source: Captain-Cliche

Soldiers wearing gas masks while peeling onions at Tobruk, October 15, 1941

Image source: Captain-Cliche

Captain Walter “Waddy” Young and his crew pose in front of their caricatures on their B-29 Superfortress, November 24, 1944

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Image source: Captain-Cliche

British tattoo artist George Burchett, the “King of Tattooists”, ca 1930

Image source: klassixx

Post officers show off their brand-new “Autopeds” scooters, Washington, D.C., 1917

Image source: ExtraNoise

Performer Sarah Vaughan, ca 1946

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Image source: Captain-Cliche

Joe Lincoln of Accord, champion decoy maker of New England, 1926

Image source: Jordan J. Lloyd / Dynamichrome

Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia, sling cart used in removing captured artillery during the American Civil War, ca 1865

Image source: zuzahin

Slice of life! A mother helps her child off the trolley on a Broadway in New York City, July, 1913

Image source: mygrapefruit

Black man drinking at ‘Colored’ water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahom ca July, 1939

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Image source: Captain-Cliche

A young John F. Kennedy immediately after his graduation from Harvard, in the summer of 1940

Image source: zuzahin

Times Square, D-Day, 1944

Image source: Captain-Cliche

Observer on Iwo Jima, February, 1945

Image source: Image source: Jordan J. Lloyd / Dynamichrome

Children watch as their neighborhood is bombed in Minsk, Belorussia. The bombing was part of Operation Barbarossa. June, 1941

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Image source: Captain-Cliche

Stalin and Churchill in Livadia Palace during the Yalta Conference, February, 1945

Image source: zuzahin

Louis and Lucille Armstrong at the Sphinx, January 28, 1961

Image source: Jordan J. Lloyd / Dynamichrome