Category: Colorizations

Winters Past…In Color

It seems like a good time to remember once again the winters of Yore…*

Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 1956.
Sleighing on Beacon Street, February 1901. Courtesy Boston Public Library.
A snowball fight in front of New York Public Library, New York City, 1939.
Winter Street in Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1860.
A German car advertising image (but very real snow), late 1950s.
The white streets of Portland, Maine, mid-1960s.
Maybe not such a good time to go caravaning, 1960s.
The Common, Boston, Massachusettes, circa 1875. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
A snowy New Year, 1911.
Two Tots in Moscow, Russia, 1983.
The frozen Thames River at London Bridge, London, England, December 1895.
Skating on a frozen pond, 1891. Courtesy British Library.
Snowed in somewhere in America, 1961.
Chester, California, 1960s.
A snowstorm in Boston, Massachusetts, c. 1930. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library/Leslie Jones Collection.
Daguerreotype of a village in winter, France, Circa 1850.
Skating on a frozen canal, Amsterdam, Holland, 1997.
Snowy NYC, 1952.
Snowman construction, early 1950s.
A lady and her horse in 1899.

*All black and white images were colorized.

Ω

Like a Rainbow: Resurrecting Mary Avery White Forbes

15406826479_de5f06591b_b
Mary Avery White Forbes, colorized daguerreotype from the Jesse Cress Collection.

This glorious colorization by Sanna Dullaway returns vividly to life Mary White Avery Forbes, a 19th Century denizen of Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Her birth was recorded on 12 March, 1813, in Roxbury, to William White (1779-1848) and his wife Nancy Avery (1783–1865). In Mary’s time, Roxbury was already an ancient settlement first colonized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630; it is now one of the 23 official neighborhoods of Boston.

14837555242_733b2fa7c4_h
The original 1/6th-plate daguerreotype of Mary Forbes, Circa 1848, from the Jesse Cress Collection.

Mary’s future husband, Daniel Hall Forbes, born 5 September, 1808, in Westborough, was the son of Jonathan Forbes (1775-1861) and Esther Chamberlain (1770-1867). According to the 1892 Forbes and Forebush Genealogy: The Descendants of Daniel Forbush, Jonathan Forbes “always resided in the Forbes homestead, West Main Street…. He taught school when a young man. He was a captain as early as 1813, when he was elected deacon of the Evangelical Church, holding the latter office 48 years. He held most of the town offices and was a natural leader in church and town affairs. It is said he was always chairman of every committee in which he served.” The genealogy also notes, “His children, Susannah, Julia, Jonathan, Jr., and Daniel were all baptized Oct. 29, 1808.”

The group baptism was a sign of commitment to Christianity that the Forbes family kept alive for multiple generations. When he died more than four decades later, Daniel, the month-old infant christened that day, would leave hundreds of dollars to missionary societies. His daughter would die in a far away country, serving God’s cause.

Continue reading “Like a Rainbow: Resurrecting Mary Avery White Forbes”

Resaturated with Life: Historical Photos Colorized by Grant Kemp

42301272030_f88a396368_o.jpg
Colorization by Grant Kemp of an original daguerreotype of an unidentified woman and infant in the Ann Longmore-Etheridge Collection. The inscription on the reverse reads, “Taken September 12th, 1854. The child was 28 days old.”

Recently, I was honored that Grant Kemp, of restoringyourpast.co.uk and a truly remarkable artist, chose two of my daguerreotypes to colorize. The results were utterly revitalizing, as can be seen from the comparison below.

Grant says of himself, “Trained as a Graphic Designer, I have a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Graphic Design. During my long graphics and print career, I have used design, image software and scanners from every leading supplier including the highest resolution drum scanners. I bring all of my industry experience to the Restoring Your Past service. Graphic design, image scanning, newspaper/magazine production, web, litho, and digital printing experience means I can offer a graphics service that’s based on having dealt with just about every sort of image destined for any type of output.”

Enjoy these samples of his work and if you have old family photographs to restore or colorize, a better digital artist than Kemp is unlikely to be found.

45871650692_0845c9fe95_o1.jpg
Taken in 1877 by John Thomson, this image was first seen in ‘Street Life in London.’ The subject was the widow of a tailor. In her arms was an infant for whom she cared whilst the mother was at work in exchange for a cup of tea and a piece of bread.

Continue reading “Resaturated with Life: Historical Photos Colorized by Grant Kemp”