I love examining historic photos in color.
I’ve written about colorization here and here.
But, after marveling my way through two books using historic photos, I’m even more excited.
Marina Amaral: historic photos artist
I’ve followed Marina Amaral’s twitter feed for several years.
She regularly posts extraordinary historic photos she digitally colorized.
In the last two years, she has joined British historian Dan Jones to produce two books: The World Aflame: The Long War 1914-1945 and The Color of Time.
Jones wrote the historic explanation, covering the times (and including a timeline), that connects the photos colorized by Amaral.
(The subtitle “The Long War,” is how many European historians describe the two world wars. “One long war with a long armistice in between.”)
It’s a broad overview, not detailed, but it sets up each photo in the books.
The Colour of Time covers 1850- 1960, hitting the decade highlights.
Photography was a new technology in 1850, which is why the book started in that decade.
The power of historic photos
I recently spent time with two young relatives.
The ten-year-old didn’t want to attend her history Zoom lesson.
“The teacher is so boring! She just talks to us for two hours, we have to take notes, and then turn them in.
“But it’s so boring. I don’t like history.”
How could one of my relatives not like history?
I pulled out Amaral and Jones’ The Color of Time and we began.
For the next two mornings, we spent the half-hour before school turning the pages, admiring the historic photos, and I told the stories.
I recognized most of the people, yes, but I also was able to link the girls (her sister joined us) to their family history.
“Do you know what this is a photo of?” I asked.
“Is that a kite with a man in it? asked the eight-year-old.
Look at the book cover on the right.
Is that a kite?
No. it’s a colorized photo of the first airplane her great-great-grandfather ever saw.
(He saw it on exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, not long after the Wright brothers flew it).
The girls looked at me with wide eyes.
The colorization of the historic photos drew them, but the stories made history come alive.
The people looked real.
Using photos to tell stories
As we worked through the book, I was startled to see a colorized photo of Lenin and Stalin.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Here’s the black and white version.
(I’m not using Amaral’s colorized photos because I assume they are copyrighted. Get the books and marvel yourself!)
The children didn’t know these men, so I explained how many people they may have been responsible for murdering.
Wide-eyes again.
But, as I continued through the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the history lesson–vivid though it was through my telling–got increasingly grim.
Who was responsible for more people dying? Stalin or Mao Tse Tung?
“This man is the reason your great-grandfather went to war,” turned into an explanation of the Korean War.
When I turned a page and came upon a colorized photo of a beheading–the like of which I’d never seen before–we hurried.
So much war. So much killing. Truly, the 20th century was bloodthirsty.
Which historic photos did the children like?
The younger girl loved seeing the elegant dresses, vivid in sparkling colors and jewelry. (Mata Hari was a big hit).
Her sister liked photos with horses, “They [the horses] look the same.”
They recognized several people.
“That man looks familiar, but not quite right.”
“What if he had a beard?” I asked
“Oh, yeah. But who is it?”
“Abraham Lincoln.”
The good news is by the time we finished reviewing The Color of Time, the girls didn’t think history was quite so boring anymore.
Tweetables
Using colorized historic photos to teach history. Click to Tweet
How colorized photos changed a little girl’s thoughts about history. Click to Tweet
A Woman’s World: another addition to the very fine Color of Time series. Click to Tweet
I bought The Color of Time after seeing some pictures from it. But I’ve never even opened it. Now, where did I put that book? 🙂
Lol