Rare Color Photos From the Great Depression:

[fredinator]

These are some incredible pics; I don't recall ever seeing a color photo of anyone from that time:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/07/rare-color-photos-from-the-great-depression_n_674344.html#s124103

[KenTheDude]

These are some incredible pics; I don't recall ever seeing a color photo of anyone from that time:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/07/rare-color-photos-from-the-great-depression_n_674344.html#s124103

Hey thanks for posting this link. The Great Depression is my favorite era in time. Some cool antiques and cars came from that era.

[G.I.Jim]

They all look so happy!

[bluejeangirl76]

Wow, cool.

I love the shot of the lady with the hand drill, working on the plane. (i think it's a plane...)

My dad was born during the depression... the stories from those times - wow.

[artist4perry]

Thank you. Those old photos are amazingly clear. Most would have yellowed by now, it is odd they haven't. The people from that era have a great deal to tell. It is so sad how they lived even past that point, adding water to half shampoo bottles, using tea bags three times. Saving and washing out plastic bags. They survived on what they had and their frugalness. I wonder if this happens to us would we be so savy. Incredible, the human spirit.

[BobbyinTN]

Love those photos. Color just brings more reality.

[kgdjpubs]

Thank you. Those old photos are amazingly clear. Most would have yellowed by now, it is odd they haven't.

if you know what you are doing, there is software out there (ie Photoshop) that can restore the color back. It's not that hard.

[artist4perry]

Thank you. Those old photos are amazingly clear. Most would have yellowed by now, it is odd they haven't.

if you know what you are doing, there is software out there (ie Photoshop) that can restore the color back. It's not that hard.

That is good to know. Most pictures from my childhood have yellowed to some degree.

[RedWingFan]

What's the big deal? Go to the Detroit Free Press or Detroit News and you can see all kinds of color great depression pics.

[brywool]

they look like slides rather than prints

[Don]

They were probably done with Kodachrome instead of Agfacolor, depending which on which years the pics were taken.

[kgdjpubs]

they look like slides rather than prints

probably a good guess, now that you mention it. If so, not the greatest scans either--or they have been blown up from the original resolution.

[cudaclan]

http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/boundforgl ... fault.aspx

History repeating.

[Michigan Girl]

I don't understand why people didn't smile back then ...I realize this was the depression,
but still there had to be something to be happy about at some point

[artist4perry]

I don't understand why people didn't smile back then ...I realize this was the depression,
but still there had to be something to be happy about at some point

It may have been when it took 10 minutes to get an exposure. You could not smile that long! LOL!

[TRAGChick]

http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/boundforglory/Pages/default.aspx

History repeating.

I STILL find it hard to believe that this woman is ONLY 32 YEARS OLD

[Babyblue]

That was cool to see all the pics from that time.

[hoagiepete]

Nice pics, but they had to have been Photoshopped. No? Where's our resident photographer, he'll know.

[Sarah]

Nice pics, but they had to have been Photoshopped. No? Where's our resident photographer, he'll know.

Not necessarily. I read on another site that these were shot on Kodachrome. From Wikipedia:

"When stored in darkness, Kodachrome's long-term stability under ordinary conditions is superior to other types of color film; images on Kodachrome slides over fifty years old retain accurate color and density. It has been calculated that the least stable color, yellow, would suffer a 20% loss of dye in 185 years."

If these were kept well (and I assume they were if the gov't owned them) they definitely could be this vivid. I bet they were tweaked a bit after scanning but you would have to do that with any scanned photo...

[Tomulator]

I don't understand why people didn't smile back then ...I realize this was the depression,
but still there had to be something to be happy about at some point

They were "depressed" MG...