Confederate soldiers
When I was a kid, there were living links to the Civil War — my granny told stories about sitting on an uncle’s lap while he was telling Civil War stories with other uncles, I was in grade school when the last living Civil War veteran died, and of course Dixie was still very present for much of the 20th century.
A famous Matthew Brady portrait of the Commander-in-Chief
So when something comes along that brings new life to the images we have of that war, it’s like a new living link, like this photo of Robert E Lee and the one that follows of Ulysses S. Grant:
Confederate General Robert E Lee and aides
A handful of people have tackled the task of colorizing black and white photos from different eras in history, pre-color photographs. While these images lack the stark power and emotion of black and white images of an earlier day, they also bring an amazing human connection that black and white can’t provide.
And the settings range from stage studio photos to famous photos taken on the battlefield and in camps. Plus, they include a range of subjects from famous people to the everyday soldier on both sides of the conflict. For example, another of the Commander-in-Chief:
Or a casual photo that includes a young George Armstrong Custer:
Or this image of Union troops at the front:
- Union soldiers on the front line, undetermined location
The reality of the settings bring us into the scene much more than with the traditional images. Take another image of cannoneers, for example. We’re so used to black and white imagery that the color version is so realistic that the photo looks like one from a modern reenactment.
But where the most drama and reality come is in the colorized versions of the war dead. Here’s a famous photograph taken by Thomas O’Sullivan, believed to be showing the aftermath of the first day of conflict at Gettysburg. It’s called “A Harvest of Death:”
And one version of colorization of the same photo:
The men who started this phenomenon with Civil War photographs were British colorist Jordan Lloyd, then 27, and fellow colorist Mads Madsen, then 19. Initially it was Madsen who was colorizing images from the Civil War era, but Lloyd eventually got interested and now the two work together restoring the images, improving their technique by giving each other critiques.
Thanks to them and to others who are giving us new and different looks through these windows in time.
Sound off below if you have comments. We’ll feature colorized photos from other eras in upcoming posts.
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