Old World in Color

Here are some color pictures from almost 100 years ago, during the 1910s and early 1920s.

The post author makes an interesting point -- that since most of the pictures we see from that era are in black and white, we have a sort of default mode in our minds that everything during that time from really was in black and white. We know it really wasn't, but there's still a little surprise to see color pictures from the era, and a nagging sense that they're not really from a hundred years ago but are people dressed up like 100 years ago.

The process, which is explained in the blog entry, was called Actachrome and involved, of all things, potato starch. Were it to be in use today, you could expect New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to ban it as unhealthy based on that ingredient. Sure, neither the photographers nor the subjects actually eat the potato starch, but common sense has yet to stop Mayor Bloomberg on his quest to tell everyone what they can and can't eat and there's not much reason to expect it to start now.