Friday, September 22, 2006

Something that makes history teachers like me drool

I was perusing the entry for World War I on Wikipedia today, and came across a link to color photography from World War I. I'm sorry, did you say color photography from World War ONE? Yes, it's true. The photo you see above is not a bunch of reenactors; that photo was taken of some French soldiers on June 16, 1917. It is real color photography too; it's not a black and white photo that has been inked in after the fact. Color photography has been around since 1903. It was just too expensive, fragile, and unpredictable at first. Quality and trustworthy color photography was invented around 1935. One of my favorite books in my vast collection is one of color photography from World War II. You want to talk about quality: some of those Khodacrome photos look like they were taken last week, not in 1942. But World War I color photography? That is too wild! If you want to see more of it, here is the website. Here is one more photo to get you hooked:

And remember, you can make the photo bigger by clicking on it.

Good Day to You, Sir

1 comment:

Dan Edwards said...

Thanks for the link. Really a cool find!

I have a photo from WWI of the US Army Infantry Company that my grandfather was in.....we assume he is the one with "me" written on one leg. Such things bring history to life.