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Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.
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Teen Mother colorized
Submitted by Kenny on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 11:09am.
This is a colorized version of Dorthea Lange's 1937 photograph of an 18 year old mother from Oklahoma in a California migrant workers camp. The colorization seems to magnify the harshness of her life, i.e. her hand and the vacant sadness of her eyes.
You can't help but wonder if her life improved with the lifting of the depression. What happened with her children and grandchildren? View full size.
I'm not a fan
Submitted by jillian925 on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 4:39am.
of the colorization of this photo. For me, it seems to take away from the mysterious and dramatic effect that vintage black and white photos put out there. I LOVE vintage black and white photos, and this colorization takes something away from the photo. It's still a nice photo, but it gives off a more modern look. I'd prefer to see it without color.
Discrepancies
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Sun, 08/16/2009 - 4:47pm.
Why do we think she's a mother? The photographer's caption info as recorded by the Library of Congress doesn't say anything about this girl having children. It says she's from Tennessee, not Oklahoma -- the daughter of a coal miner. The photo was taken in 1936, not 1937. And it's Dorothea, not "Dorthea."
Nothing is Missing!
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Sun, 08/16/2009 - 12:04am.
The color just brings these people to life! Keep it up!
Something Missing
Submitted by Mr Mel on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 4:52pm.
A great job of colorizing but it doesn't have the impact of the black and white original.
Now that is...
Submitted by rgraham on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 12:36pm.
a well done bit of colorization. Overall it looks well balanced, and not overly saturated. The galvanized steel bucket is awesome. The only spot that could use some work is the stove. It seems a bit too purple, and a touch of yellow would neutralize it.
Nice work.
Clrzed? Srsly?
Submitted by JeffK on Mon, 08/10/2009 - 7:57pm.
This looks like a color original to me.
Very few colorized photos do, there's always something not quite right, too much color saturation or too little. Even it it's a small part of the photo it pops out.
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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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