From the 1920s through the 1960s, America transformed from a young country on the rise into a global superpower. It's a decisive period in our nation's history that most of us have only witnessed in black and white, until now. Using digital colorization technology, we present these formative decades as few have seen them. Join us as we revisit 50 vibrant years of good times and great despair, technological triumphs and natural disasters, and global villains and national heroes.
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Grab a front row seat to a fully colorized look at Hollywood's Golden Age.
Color footage of the Rockefellers, Roosevelts, and Kennedys gives an unprecedented look at America's storied families.
Visit Coney Island, Disneyland, the Kentucky Derby, and Notre Dame football, in their infancy and in color.
From the Black Sox Scandal to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, follow America's history of organized crime, in color.
An unprecedented, colorful look at how Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison reshaped America.
From Buffalo Bill to the construction of the Hoover Dam, this is the story of America's Wild West in color.
Revisit America during the turbulent 1960s, as we bring the dawn of modern America to colorful life.
Witness the highs and lows of 1950s America, from consumerism to McCarthyism and beyond, in color.
See rare color footage of Pearl Harbor, internment camps, the Manhattan Project, and other seminal moments of the 1940s.
See Prohibition end, the New Deal begin, and the Great Plains turn to dust, like you've never seen it before: in color.
Watch the Model T roll, the Jazz Age erupt, and the market crash, like it has never been seen before, in color.
Select below to explore photos in color.
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The visual history of early 20th-century America has largely been told through black-and-white photography. But with meticulous colorization techniques and research, we're able to render the past in vivid color. Here, Texas Guinan, a flamboyant figure who ran New York's 300 Club during Prohibition, lives up to her reputation as a symbol of the Roaring '20s.
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Adding color to black-and-white footage may seem unnecessary, but its importance lies in the accuracy and resonance it lends to historical records. It's also a painstaking technical process that often lends an immediacy and vividness to far-off moments in history. Seen above, a toddler enjoys a handful of Wheaties, which became the most popular cereal in the 1920s.
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Employment segregation was still rife by the 1930s, and many men and women were denied jobs as a result. One option for work was on Pullman trains, which were staffed by uniformed, predominantly black porters, like this man above. In 1925, they banded together to create the first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
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In 1905, a young Franklin D. Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin. Even at such a young age, Eleanor's poise and personality leaps from the confines of this restored print, taken shortly after her wedding day. It's easy to imagine her as the future First Lady who would go on to transcend her role and become a formidable stateswoman.
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In the late '40s, Las Vegas was a small town dreaming big: Despite a population of just 20,000, it had vice-like draws, like shotgun weddings, even quicker divorces, and legalized gambling. In 1946, mob boss Bugsy Siegel, seen here in typically fashionable attire, opened the city's first luxury hotel and casino: the 105-room, six-million-dollar Flamingo.
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Despite a Supreme Court decision in 1954, the majority of schools in the South remained segregated. Three years later, the NAACP forced the issue by selecting nine black students to enroll at an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here they are in this restored photo with the then-president of the NAACP.
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It's the 1950s, and "rock 'n' roll," a genre that takes from traditional African-American rhythm and blues, sweeps the nation. Record producers like Sam Phillips (above) seek to capitalize on and sell it to a young white audience by signing young talent, like Jerry Lee Lewis (above) and Elvis, who go on to become national sensations overnight.
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Former soldier and future real estate mogul William Levitt returned to the U.S. from WWII with a plan: to use military methods to mass-produce affordable homes. Levitt--seen here in a restored photo--would go on to revolutionize construction and boost home ownership in communities that he, and the press, would later dub "Levittowns," as known as suburbs.
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While the 1960s was a decade awash with color photographs, many iconic pictures were taken in black and white. Here's one example of the latter, painstakingly colorized, of Martin Luther King Jr. in a Birmingham, Alabama jail in 1967, four years after his first stay there where he wrote the powerful 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'
Heralded as "the finest American theater actor of his generation" by the New York Times, Liev Schreiber's repertoire of resonant, humanistic and oftentimes gritty portrayals have garnered him praise in film, theatre and television.
Schreiber stars as the title role of "Ray Donovan" in Showtime's critically-acclaimed hit series alongside Jon Voight. This powerful family drama centers on Ray as L.A.'s best professional fixer -- the go-to guy in Hollywood who deftly solves the complicated, controversial and confidential problems of the city's elite. Schreiber's riveting performance as 'Ray' garnered him four Golden Globe Award nominations in the category of 'Best Actor in a Television Series Drama' and three Primetime Emmy nominations in "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series."
In 2015, Schreiber was seen in "Spotlight," an award-winning film about the true story of when The Boston Globe uncovered the scandal of child molestation within the Catholic Church. The film won several awards including an Oscar for Best Picture, a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture -- Drama, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture. It was also listed on the American Film Institute's Top Ten Films of 2015.
In 2010, Schreiber received his third Tony® nomination for his role in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge" alongside Scarlett Johansson. His performance as Ricky Roma in the 2005 Broadway revival of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," directed by Joe Mantello, earned him his first Tony Award. He was again a Tony nominee for his portrayal of Barry Champlain in the 2007 Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's "Talk Radio," directed by Robert Falls. Other stage work includes in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in the lead role opposite Janet McTeer, the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of "Macbeth," in the lead role opposite Jennifer Ehle, directed by Moises Kaufman; Othello; Hamlet; Henry V; and Cymbeline.
Schreiber made his feature directorial debut with "Everything is Illuminated" in 2005, which he also adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel of the same name. The film, starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hutz, was named one of the year's 10 Best by the National Board of Review.
From filming The Wizard of Oz to Gone with the Wind, this camera brought movies to life with color. Learn more about its design and history in the film industry at Smithsonian Magazine.
READ MOREFrom filming The Wizard of Oz to Gone with the Wind, this camera brought movies to life with color. Learn more about its design and history in the film industry at Smithsonian Magazine.
READ MORESee President Herbert Hoover like never before in what may be the earliest color footage of the White House at Smithsonian Magazine.
READ MORESee President Herbert Hoover like never before in what may be the earliest color footage of the White House at Smithsonian Magazine.
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