Rare Color Photographs from the Early 40s

Rare Color Photographs - Great Depression


Not sure if this is the correct forum for this discussion, so feel free to move to the correct forum.

I came across these photos on the DailyMail website. It's always unreal to see the world at that time in color. You almost grow up thinking that everything existed in black and white for the longest time, then magically turned to color - much like the Wizard of Oz.

It's a reminder of days gone by...

reply to post by MrBigDog1974


I don't think I have ever seen any photos of this era other than black & white.
Thanks for posting.
S&F

The first one is Obama, right?

The photos look too cristal clear to be natural, still they are amazing, great find

reply to post by MrBigDog1974


Explanation: Great Find... its been on ATS before....Here...

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 (by solarstorm posted on 7-8-2010 @ 11:07 PM) [ATS]


And from my post to that thread ...

1 cent oranges: (say 4 x 250g [9oz] oranges to kilo) = 4 cents / kilo

Average US 1940's Wage = $1299.00 per annum

= 65 cents per hr [min wage was 43 cents per hr]

Average US 2000's Wage = $36,764 .00 per annum

Which is over 28 times what was earned in 1940's

I had trouble finding US orange prices per kilo but did find a source citing 99 cents / pound = $2.18 per kilo [2.2lbs=1kg]

That equates to 55 cents [rnded up] per 250g [9oz] orange

[edited to add following equation to clarify]
55 [cents per orange] / 28 [x inflationionary increase since 1940] = 1.96 cents... rnded up = 2 cents per orange

So oranges today [in the US] cost about twice what they did in the 1940's

Personal Disclosure: Some of those pictures look like they were taken yesterday in outback Australia!

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of middle class american families end up living out of those dugouts and eaking out what ever they can scrape up and outa the land with the sweat of their brows etc in the next few years.

edited to add equation to clarify my maths! soz

[edit on 8-8-2010 by OmegaLogos]

Wow, those are striking photographs! Never knew camera's back then could capture such crisp detail.

Were they shopped?

reply to post by anon102


Film is always higher resoultion than CCD or CMOS today.

Amazing photos. Thank you for sharing them! I've seen a few very old color photos before. They are extremely rare. The quality is astonishing for back then, and even compared to todays digital photos! When I look at them, I relate to them much better than to black and white. They almost look like they could have been taken five or ten years ago with the exception of their dated clothes. It makes me feel more connected to the people in the photos, because they're not just some black and white relic from days gone by.

Originally posted by zookey
reply to post by anon102

 

Film is always higher resoultion than CCD or CMOS today.

Hmmm! I never knew! Thanks for info. Pretty astounding actually.

reply to post by MrBigDog1974


my god they are fascinating...I love looking at the clothing and the items they used...what was shocking to me was how freaking big that train was compared to the women cleaning it....massive....fantastic post my frient...fantastic

Made my day.

S+ F

Unbelieveably clear and great resolution photos!!

Hard to believe it was like 70 years ago in these pics.
Damn life was rough for those people.

Awesome photos1 Really bring that era to life!

Incidentaly,anyone else notice the UFO in the 14th row of the photos,the African American tenant house?

reply to post by MrBigDog1974


Can't wait for people to start finding time travelers in these pics!

Seriously though, absolutely gorgeous! I wish more color photos existed from this time period and before. The only other early color photographs I had seen were from either Germany or Russia. I always love looking at such things.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


Thanks for the heads-up, Omega. I did a quick ATS search but didn't find anything. Guess that shows my ignorance.

It is amazing though how unreal the pictures look. It's also pretty astounding to think that people lived in those conditions less than 75 years ago. It may have been tough, but you can feel a strong sense of both family and community in those photos.


The final picture is hilarious in my opinion. I'm trying to figure out what the girl on the right is looking at....

Gorgeous photographs!

For those commenting on how clear these pictures are it shouldn't be that surprising. My biggest surprise was the color depth and richness that was preserved.

Remember the first color photograph was somewhere aroung the 1860s / 1870s timeframe (not exactly sure right now) by the late 30s Kodak and Agfa were both offering commercially available color films which had gotten pretty good building off of over 60 years of experimentation and refinement.

I think the reason these are special is that they were stored properly. Color and black and white films degrade over time and it is even worse if not stored in a climate controlled dry place. The negatives or slides for these probably sat in a government storage archive for 60 or 70 years which are controlled to stop damage to documents, books microfiche etc and would have preserved the film well.

Many well preserved b&W from the era look even clearer.

Anyway these are amazing and I wish people would get to digitizing all their old photographs to share with the world!

Originally posted by gemineye
reply to post by MrBigDog1974

 

Can't wait for people to start finding time travelers in these pics!

Ha haa I looked for Cell phones and transvestites in each. No dice.

I am so intrigued by old photos - thank you for posting these.
I wonder how many of those photographed are still with us - the children?
Time passes so quickly - and yet we don't realize it in the day to day.
I'll be thinking about this, that time, the way of life then - as I go about my business today.
Thanks for the brain/eye candy.

reply to post by MrBigDog1974


Thank you for posting this. It's hard to describe how seeing color photos this old makes me feel. Especially the welder and torch guy. (I work with metals) s&f

I appreciate the thanks from everyone. I thought this would be a fun one to put out here on ATS as a changeup from all the doom and gloom that is pretty rampant lately.