80 Fascinating Colorized Photos That Show History From A New Perspective

We often think of history in black and white, quite literally. And that’s because most very old photographs are indeed monochrome, taken before a time when images could easily and affordably be developed in living color. While there’s a certain charm to black and white pics, they can sometimes give the impression that the past was a little duller, or less alive. Which couldn't be further from the truth.

Enter colorized historical photos. A trend that adds splashes of color to frozen moments, warming up faces, giving eyes some sparkle, and breathing new life into everyday scenes from years gone by. The reimagined photographs remind us that the people who came before us were real humans, with colorful clothing, rosy cheeks, sunlit surroundings, and lives as vivid as our own.

There’s an online community dedicated to sharing gorgeous colorized historical photographs. r/ColorizedHistory has clocked up more than 631,000 members. And it’s not hard to see why. The posts put a new spin on old photography, and turn the static past into a stunning, colorful gallery that somehow helps to bridge the gap between “then” and “now.” Bored Panda has put together a list of our favorite ones. Keep scrolling and prepare to step back in time, while gaining a new perspective on history.

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A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade , 1914/1915

Two soldiers resting on wooden pallets in a muddy area, showcasing interesting colorized history pics from wartime.

Final score:

49points

30 Of The Most Remarkable Historical Photos Colorized (New Pics)

A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade , 1914/1915

Senegalese Ww1 Soldier Who Lost Both His Arms Writes A Letter With His New Prosthetic Limbs. At Vocational Rehabilitation School For Amputees, 28 Avenue De New-York, Paris - 1918

Mark Twain And His Long-Time Friend John T. Lewis, The Inspiration For The Character "Jim" In "Huckleberry Finn", New York, 1903

African American Boys On Easter Morning. Southside, Chicago, Illinois. April 1941

Soldier’s Goodbye & Bobbie The Cat In Sydney, Australia, 8 March 1941 During Ww2

Father, Son, Grandfather And Great Grandfather, New Guinea, 1970, By Irving Penn Photos From The Collection "Worlds In A Small Room"

June 6th, 1944: Into The Jaws Of Death

"Do Your Bit! Skate To Work" Women Of The Uso Promoting Gas Rationing During WWII. New York City, 1940s

Winnebago Men Looking Out Over The Dells, Wisconsin, 1925

Titanic Orphans, Brothers Michel And Edmond Navratil, 1912. They Were The Only Children To Be Rescued From The Titanic Without A Parent Or Guardian

1902: Knife Grinders In Thiers, France

Martin Luther King Jr.’s, 1958 Arrest In Montgomery, Alabama. A Photo Taken By Charles Moore

"The Giant Of Illinois" - Robert Wadlow, The Tallest Man In Recorded History, With His Family - 1935

Cheyenne Dog Soldier "Black Wolf" - Date Unknown

Ginger Rogers In The Spotlight In Gold Diggers Of 1933

A Photographer Uses His Own Backdrop To Mask Poland's World War II Ruins While Shooting A Portrait In Warsaw, November 1946

Swedish High Jumper Gunhild Larking From The 1956 Summer Olympics In Melbourne, Australia, From Archives Of Life Magazine

A Japanese Mother And Child, Dressed In Traditional Clothing, Siting Amid Rubble And Burnt Trees In Hiroshima, 4 Months After The Atomic Bomb Was Dropped. December, 1945 By Alfred Eisenstaedt

A Fashionable Lady From Moscow, 1860s

"The Kiss Of Life" - A Utility Worker Giving Mouth-To-Mouth To A Co-Worker After He Contacted A Low Voltage Wire - 1967

A Dog Stealing A Postman's Glove, Minneapolis, CA. 1950, Photograph Courtesy Of The Minneapolis Historical Society

Comedian And Entertainer Lucille Ball Applies Makeup For A Performance In Her Dressing Room. 1934

University Students At Restaurant ‘Flustrets’, Uppsala, Sweden 1896

A Polish Woman, Holding Her Small Child, Stands On A Warsaw Street That Has Been Destroyed By Luftwaffe Bomber Raids At The Start Of World War II In Europe - September, 1939

British Soldier Receiving Painful Injection From A Nurse Along The Russian Front

Baby Cage, 1930s

Three Smoking Coal Breaker Boys, Pennsylvania, Between 1890 And 1910

Albert Einstein Receiving His U.S. Citizenship Certificate After His Naturalization Ceremony - Oct. 1, 1940

Ian Turner, Member Of The I.W.W. (Industrial Workers Of The World) At A Rally In Union Square, New York City, 11 April 1914

Frida Kahlo In 1953 At The English Hospital

"The Destroyer Of Worlds" - Julius Robert Oppenheimer ~ 1952

Isaac & Rosa, Slave Children From New Orleans, CA 1863 / Photographed By Kimball, 477 Broadway, N. Y

Woman In White Bathing Suit On Beach Wearing Big Straw Hat. 03 August, 1938. Photo By H. Armstrong Roberts

Rosa May Billinghurst, The Suffragette Who Used Her Wheelchair To Charge Police Officers During Protests

Pele, One Of The Greatest Players Ever To Grace The Sport Of Football, And Labeled The Greatest By Fifa, Unknown Date But Likely In The Late 50's/Early 60's

"Master & Apprentice" - IP Man And His Most Famous Student, Bruce Lee ~ 1957

Palestinian Woman Wedad Khuri In Finely Embroidered Ramallah Costume, 1939

Ruth Malcolmson, Age 18, Crowned Miss America In 1924

U.S Marines Crawling Under Enemy Fire On A Beach In Saipan. June, 1944

The Titanic Leaving Belfast For Her Sea Trials - 2 April 1912

August 3, 1909, Children Stand Mesmerized As Louis Blériot's Plane Soars Above The Sands Of Calais

First U.S. Army Infantrymen Start Through Heavy Woods On Way To Attack German-Held Barracks Near Siegen, Germany. 6 April, 1945

8/1/1914-Berlin, Germany: World War I Mobilization In Berlin, August 1, 1914. Two Officers Putting Up A Poster Announcing Decree In Tiergarden While German Boys Watch

Yeoman Warders Outside The Gates Of The Tower Of London - 1898

A Young Man From The Levant Wearing Traditional Bedouin Clothes, Early 1900s

Marie Curie, Ca 1900

October 29th, 1929 The Last Day Of The Stock Market Crash That Would Become Known As Black Tuesday

Goalkeeper Sam Bartram, Alone On The Pitch, Not Realizing That The Game Had Been Abandoned 15 Minutes Earlier Due To Heavy Fog - 25 Dec 1937

Finnish Soldiers In NBC (Nuclear, Biological & Chemical) Gear, During An Exercise - 1961

American Troops On Board A Landing Craft Heading For The Beaches At Oran In Algeria During Operation 'Torch', November 1942

"The Father Of Basketball" - James Naismith In 1927

"The Old Samurai" - Yokohama, Japan - Circa 1865

Unknown Dutch Soldier Smiling With Indonesian Guerilla He Captured Earlier During A Routine Patrol In East Java, Indonesia, July 1946. Indonesian War Of Independence

The Rolling Stones - On The Day Of Their First TV Appearance - 7th July 1963

Pauline Cushman (1833-1893), American Actress And Spy For Union Army During American Civil War, Mathew Brady Studio, 1864

An American Couple Ride Around On An Autoped Scooter, Circa 1918

Young JFK, Ca1953

A Black Union Soldier Posted At A Slave Auction House - Whitehall Street, Atlanta, United States - 1864

Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Mugshots Of Benito Mussolini, Dated June 19, 1903

Anne Frank (1929 - 1945) - Amsterdam, Holland - May 1935

Joseph Stalin In 1902

Charles Manson Being LED Away In Handcuffs After Being Found Guilty Of M**der , 1971

King George V's Uniformed Portrait, Which He Included In The Christmas Letter Sent To The British Armed Forces During The First World War In Christmas 1914

Private First Class Margerum, Of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Walks The Road Through A Forest In The Bastogne Area, Returning From The Front Lines, December 27th(?) 1944

W. E. B. Du Bois – American Civil Rights Activist And Leader, Sociologist, Writer, Educator, Poet, And Co-Founder Of The Naacp. In The Year 1907

Edgar Allan Poe - 1849

FDR Pointing At The Map, 1942

William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister Of Canada; Winston Churchill, Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom And Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Of The United States Of America During The Québec Conference 1943

Pope Leo XIII In 1887

Guillaume Duchenne De Boulogne Performing Facial Electrostimulus Experiments, 1854 -1856

1940, Palestinian Soap Factory In Nablus

Baron Rothschild And His Brother Leopold De Rothschild (In Top Hat), 1906

Lawn Tennis Players, Probably In The Boston Area, Circa 1890

Rocky Marciano - The Only Heavyweight Champion To Have Finished His Career Undefeated - 1953

State Cop's Motorcycle Admired By The Local Boys At The Annual County Fair In Albany, Vermont, 1936

Unknown Woman Loading Cabbage Into Her 1941 Pontiac Torpedo. 1941-1945

Operation Torch November 1942 : American Soliders Arriving To Algiers, Algeria (Former French Colony At That Time)

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Seated And Holding His Spectacles And A Pencil, Ca 1865