Incredible 160-year-old Civil War era photos Restored, Enhanced, and Colorized
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2024
- Submit your own family photo for restoration on my website:
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PATREON ⚫ / abcannon
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My aim with this project is to bring color, clarity, and other modern digital enhancements to these old tintype photos for the sake of historical preservation and awareness. However, my ultimate goal with this project is to evoke an increased measure of understanding, empathy, and appreciation towards those who endured one of the bloodiest and most tumultuous eras in American history. I hope that additional clarity and color can help viewers to experience a familiar, relatable immediacy and greater connection to our ancestors who lived, worked, laughed, cried, and experienced the same type of human emotions we do.
For many, the only record of what these very real people looked like is documented in these tintype photos. The entirety of their memory may be held in these images which are limited in quality, condition, and clarity because of the limitations of Tintype photography which was still in its infancy. I hope that my work helps us to recognize that these people in each photo faced the same reality we do, one that is in vivid detail and in color.
I need your help!
To continue this most important work, I need your help. This project consumes a substantial amount of time. Each individual restoration + colorization takes 10-40 hours to complete from start to finish. I would love to dedicate all of my time to continue this effort to preserve and bring awareness to history. That is why I've started a Patreon to seek financial support for this project going forward. Please visit my Patreon page for extended information about how your funding can help to preserve and showcase these beautiful portraits.
Thank you for your help, consideration, and support for my project!
Adam (A.B.)
The first picture made me feel so much for this family, father, having survived the battles, at home with his wife and two beautiful daughters. A true American family.
@The actual truth It is so sad that this is your personal truth. Consider this though, Jim Crow laws were only abolished in 1965 and by 2008 there was a black president in the white house. Things take time to change but to quote Sam Cooke ' change gonna come'.
@@stephenmurray2867 Hi
Black? Nope...Mulato.
I loved the first photo. The gentleman is so handsome .You can look in his wife's eyes and see the hardships they have had to endure.Thank for bringing the people almost to life.
If only we could know about each and everyone of their journeys in life, may they all Rest In Peace.
If you read Black History books 📚, you'll find out what really happened to The Black men, women, and children during that time ⏲️, and how the white supremacist treated them and their Desendents! Nothing changed for the white people in those pictures... and this is according to THEIR history!
What really gets to me is the quiet dignity evident in their faces. Their times did not define them.
Of course not ! I myself I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal !
I remember being a child and staring at the big, oval framed photo of my great, great grandmother. Its a photo exactly like these here. I’d love to see it again, in colour.
Ancestry has a free feature where you can upload and colorize black and white photos.
This is an amazing process. Old photos from that era made people look so "severe" and this makes them look much warmer and more like people from our era. Very enjoyable,, and the music was perfect. Thank you.
Photographing was expensive and nothing you wasted with frivolities like smiling
@@SwedishEmpire1700 Actually it was because exposer time was very slow and the subjects had to remain still for an extended period of time.
@@wildbill5670 and that aswell, but what ive said is also a general truth, ive read about it
I disagree about the music. It sounds more like a dirge.
So moving and somehow sad... color make them so "approachable " and human just like we are, which is a reminder that life is so precious and short, we're all part of history. Great job!
I think people forget that this history actually happened to real people just like us. It's not just stories in books. This was current events. These aren't just pawns to be used in our present day political mud throwing. These people lived it.
dude, as I was reading your comment my moms refrigerator gave a loud bang and I freaking jumped out my bed lol I was looking at the photos thinking about how this were real people once and how short life is and then BAM! I hear a loud noise coming from the next room 😂 I almost had a heart attack.
Foreal they were real people
@@bonkersmcgee4356 we actually just survived an historic event 🙏covid sorry to those lives lost
@@RexT3rra very true!
You look into their eyes and you see a person, not some random page in a history book. This tech denotes the long prolonged myth that people of different times were somehow different than modern people and they weren't just born in different times and were a product of that. I believe tech like this unlocks the mysteries of what it was really like in different eras.
Except for one tiny part in your comment, I agree with everything. Well said.
@@bigmoniesponge Thank you for the interest, haha. You know what, I think I misunderstood it. I thought @Chris Aguilera meant to say that people from other times could and should NOT be seen as 'products of their times'.
The great-great-grandparents of somebody today who knows nothing of them...
Yes but that would be most or all of us in this present day too 2021.
That’s what I was thinking. Very poignant ......
It's such a shame we will never know the unknown names or location.
I used to collect some of the vintage celluloid photo albums from the 1800's, and they're plenty of them on ebay. A lot of these are real works of art and quite beautiful, but it would disturb me that most of the ones I bought had photos of people from that time that apparently the families weren't interested in keeping for one reason or another. Most have writing on the backs like Uncle or Grandpa, etc.
@@digikitty11 I've found in many of those instances that the owners of the photos died..and didnt have anyone to pass them on to. And the photos and other relics get packaged up n sold by non related people cleaning up the house.
I'm shaking as I look at every one of those photos.My maternal grandparents were French speaking Creoles from Louisiana.My maternal grandfather virtually white skinned & his wife,my maternal grandmother,a beautiful dark skinned woman.Those photos could have easily represented ancestors in both of their families.He was born in 1907.She in 1905.Both grandparents had ancestors who emigrated from Haiti .My grandfather's as free people of color in the Early 1800s and my grandmother's as slaves as early as the 1790s to New Orleans.
The young african american girl was stunning. Just perfectly beautiful
She was cute
We are INDIGENOUS AMERICAN, not AFRICAN, do not erase her HISTORY
I think she has a perfect name. I say her name is one that describes her the best. Ms BEAUTIFUL ❤️🌹❤️🌹❤️🌹❤️🌹🌹
These pictures had me wanting to jump in and hug them ALL. Thank you for this video... just lovely ☺️
@@NoName-gh5mq, I appreciate your point, but I am pretty sure no offense was intended. So much human suffering from greed, jealousy, cowardice, and a general evil continues 2 centuries later.
@@NoName-gh5mq There's no place Called Black where her Roots go back to. AFRICA is her home not AmeriKKKa
What is sad is that many families have failed to identify their old pictures so that the identities are lost for the future.
Many families had their identities stripped away when they came to the U.S. how do you leave this part out of comment as if it was a choice. You people really disgust me.
@@thealphaandomega9348 Was it really their choice?
Looking into the past is a sobering experience. 150 years from today people will look at us and think WTF!
People in the future will look back as us and think WTF the way we look back at people in the dark ages who hung people for witchcraft and think WTF.
3 words "duck lips selfies"... 😭🤭 lol.
@@MGood-ij1hi
Yes hindsight is 20/20 vision every time.
@@carlbowles1808 If you understand human nature you don't need hindsight. Human greed , bigotry, and stupidity may change it's appearance from generation to generation but it is always there.
Looking back at us seeing people covered in tattoos and with ridiculous hairstyles wearing suits that do not fit!
Oh my gosh. What an amazing world we live in. To see those faces like they were.
It makes the past less distant.
@@jonnykaykorn3060 most definitely, it could be really anyone we know.
@@jonnykaykorn3060 The Civil War is closer to WW2 than ww2 is to us (WW2 is 82 years ago now.)
@@SStupendous WW2 ended in '45 so that is 76 years ago, it's about equidistant.
@@jonnykaykorn3060 2 years closer though. Still, end of Civil War is closer to them
Growing up in the 50s and 60s the children of the civil war vets were still around,not many but some like my great grandmother.👵
Totally impossible! To be a veteran of civil war they would have had to of been at least 120 years old. You been lied to. Do the math and remember you can't believe everything you hear
@@relichunter9296 I think they were referring to the children of the vets
@@relichunter9296 ummmm the 50s happened in the 50s last time I checked.
You can see the worried look in the little girls eyes 🥺
No, posing for a picture wasn't particularly comfortable at the time.
Damn people are harsh in these comments. Their dates may be off and they may be fudging the time it took to create this (I don't know and don't care), but I enjoyed it. And apparently, others have too. Don't knock the hustle - it's still great work. Support them or don't.
Funny the more you look at the faces the more they look like today!
I used to do photo restorations, if they are "fudging" at all it would be in shaving time off of how long it really took, but luckily most of these didn't sport too much difficult work to repair. One badly damaged image can easily take 8 to 16 working hours to repair and colorize, or even more. Colorizing time just depends on the image and the artist, but it can take even more time than making dozens of tiny invisible repairs.
@@justinmileman7863 That's 😎 cool!
@@stardustgirl2904 Why wouldn’t they? These aren’t people from half a million years ago and evolution has taken place -- it has been maybe 5 - 6 generations.
We need more of this attitude👍
You have brought the life back to photos when I look in their eyes I see the sadness and stress having lived at that moment in time
I love seeing the photos of black people who tried so hard just to exist in this country during this time period. To see the black soldier and his family in that photo just speaks to their strength. Here he is fighting to free slaves while being a husband and a father in a land that viewed him as property. Now granted he was probably a free man but he knew that he really wasn't free. All of these photos are incredible. Thank you for you for sharing them with us!
Gosh some of these people look so strong yet behind those strong eyes you can see the fear. They look like they could use a hug
"Fear" my ass.
History .....is no longer in the past with these photos or your work. These are people, who you have been honored by bringing them back, are now relatable to all of those that think History is boring. History IS just people that did extraordinary things with a lot less than we no have.
5:11 The guy on the right really put his hair like that, looked in the mirror, and said, "YOOOOOOO"
I have a one year old grand daughter , one day 50 years from now, she'll look back on photos over 200 years old.
See? Passage of time isn't truly that long. It was not long ago that Civil War vets were in the same position or age that WW2 veterans are now.
THe first photo of the Black family is so poignant. You can tell they love each other, they're a family. I think the wife suffered more than the husband, you can see it in her eyes. All her anxiety, worry, sleeplessness. She's the one that kept it all together, did the washing, ironing, cooking, fed them, taught the girls, and sewing of the beautiful clothes they wear.
How amusing that you've decicded to create your own fiction based on these photos. Absolutey adorable.
They look worn out and worried.
And her husband seems to be a soldier.. maybe she was worried to lose him and stay alone with her children...
@@laurentmarty7266 So fascinating. :)
very nice fact-based imagining thank you!!
Amazing work. They look like they were taken yesterday. Really puts a person in the photo, not just an image of “someone”. 👍🏼
4:37 idk who she is BUT SHE IS BEAUTIFUL
And yet most "civilized" people during her time would have considered her less than human and only suitable for enslavement.
@@MGood-ij1hi that's not true. Was well dressed and healthy looking. Not all black people were enslaved at that time. She could have lived in the north and been a regular citizen in society. We need to stop the limiting viewing of ourselves
@@MammaKush88 Black people who lived in the north lived in constant fear of being kidnapped and taken back to the the south to be resold into slavery. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 stated that Blacks were slaves no matter where they were. No , Blacks did not live the lives of "regular citizens".
@@MGood-ij1hi that woman doesnt look scared. Y r u so victim minded? Why r u so brainwashed by HIStory to ignore that not all blk ppl suffered back then? Stop being so weak n fearful minded. Its pathetic
@@MammaKush88 You're right Mamma Kush Black people lived wonderful lives back then . All that stuff about the evils of slavery and discrimination, rape, and lynching was nonsense made up by Communist liberals who hate America. What was I thinking.
I came across your work on FB and I have to say as a student of the war my entire life the images you have done move me in a way Ive never felt. These historical images have been humanized in a way that I can truly feel connected to them. I can also recognize the incredible detail you have put into colorizing these correctly. Please keep up the work!
Homegirl at 4:11 would've been a " boss," of a model in this day. She's gorgeous! ❤️
You like your great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandmother?
These are beautiful. Like bringing the past alive. Its like they will speak to you. Excellent job.
The colorized parts really brings them to life . Nice job i enjoyed looking at them all 👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻😎🇺🇸
They should colourise the 1840’s photos of the very old men who were in the revolutionary war of 1776. One of them was 101 years old and still wearing his tricorn hat in the photo which he wore in 1776!
Wow, thats amazing. Considering how many people at the time died in their infancy or if they survive that, their 60s.
Yeah, I saw that photo. If we are talking about the same guy, he was wearing his entire uniform from the revolution. He still fitted into it without looking too uncomfortable. I know I couldn't wear anything from my youth. One of the old revolutionary war vets photographed had actually interacted with Washington on a couple of occasions.
please help me find it! I've tried every variation of google search I can think of and I'm coming up empty
@@cautionTosser I found it...here it is : www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356524/Faces-American-revolution-Amazing-early-photographs-document-heroes-War-Independence-later-years.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
@@jeanprytyskacz276 many thanks. George Fishley. Interesting character. Shame about the Indian massacre though
it would be interesting through facial recognition to see if anyone resembles the unknown people that may be alive today and ancestors
All people from 1800s are dead
@@jay-ks2jm what he means is the people in these photos have children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on that resemble them today in this century I’m sure a hundred years from now there will be someone that looks exactly like u in your family
@@jay-ks2jm I'm talking about their ancestors
Amazing work to give beauty and life back to those photos.
The photos were already beautiful in black and white.
@@Ablestreet yeah
lol
🎶 Away down South in the land of traitors, rattlesnakes and alligators
🎶 Right away! Come away! Right away! Right away, come away!
🎶 Where cotton’s king and men are chattels Union boys will win the battles . . .
It's already been mentioned that the piping on the uniforms should probably be light blue, but in the case of James Dennis at 3:43 and on, it states that he was in the infantry, which means the stripes on his uniform definitely should have been light blue.
Incredible work, very moving indeed.
Wow, some amazing work done here! Definitely an underrated gem on CZcams.
I agree.
Beautiful pictures, you can really see the sadness in their eyes though
Not really sadness. But just that they knew nothing would be given to them and that they knew that life was tough and that they would have to struggle to make it. Not like now where 'non-profits' and governments are there to give things to people sitting on their natural asses.
1) These are not selfies where they are trying to show their silliness. Photography was just invented during this time. And it was a big deal. Few people could even have a photo taken. It was a once in a lifetime thing. So, they are taking it serious. 2) Didn't you see the uniforms? It was during the Civil War, the nation was divided, the brutality of war, life was uncertain, death, killing, families torn apart, freedom tested...and more death. They sacrificed everything so you could have freedom today. They deserve respect, not pity.
@@crosbonit Exactly
3:15 Chadwick Boseman, is that you...???
Who knows, a great-great grandfather?
Chadwick had American ancestors?
At some point we are all just a tiny piece of history some are forgotten some are not but we will live forever in pictures or videos.
That last woman and her son look Native.
Yes they were definetly "passing". Beautiful family photo!
They were a beautiful family.
3:00 Wow! a real Buffalo Soldier 💖
This made me cry. And I got chills everywhere.
I can imagine.
Even the simple act of colouring them, makes them more human to us. We can see better what they went through and the problems they had.
Who the hell thumbs this down? 🥴
Neo Confederates
@@okimahitt7413 🤣🤣🤣
Stevie Wonder
@@okimahitt7413 you are ridiculous
@@TheLoprais58 found the confederate
THE MELANIN WAS POPPING IN THE 1800s🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
It had not been diluted so much from white slave owners yet.. Skin was darker early on.
So dignified..4:55...look at her eyes, the depth.
@@stargazer1359 you don't need that much melamin in north american climate
@@cv4809 Depends, If we’re talking south or west than yes
@@stargazer1359 it’s still not diluted that’s an illusion.😉
Wow,how flawless their skin was. This almost made me .😢
As a former plate-maker and digital scanner operator I can appreciate the time spent.Well done.
Tough people , hardened tired faces of labor and war
People didn't smile for photos back then. That was a custom, actually, to look serious in photos and not happy.
@@somerandomyoutubechannel5816 it was because the camera took a long time so they held blank expressions instead of trying to smile for the long wait
The MIRACLE of TECHNOLOGY !!!....
I wish I could like this 1000 times. What a phenomenal job you did! I really enjoyed my visit here. 🥰
It’s really beautiful to honor them in this way.
So awesome...looks like the photos were taken yesterday...who could give this a thumbs down? 🤔
Stunning! What craftsmanship and how wonderful that you included African-Americans!! Bravo!!!
agree, black people are people to! So lets all include them and lets be nice to them okay?
We are not AFRICANS, we are BLACK AMERICAN, are ANCESTORS are NATIVES to AMERICA, not AFRICA, u can't trace 1 Ancestor back to AFRICA
@@OFFICIALFUNUSBAND MAAAN, 😒😒😒😒😒 pls go somewhere, nobody needs your bucket head speaking to ppl like PETS
@@NoName-gh5mq goodboy
@@NoName-gh5mq, You make this comment as if there is something wrong with Africans or being descended from Africans. As to the comment that African-Americans cannot trace their ancestry back to Africa, you are either making that statement out of ignorance or self-hatred. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Africans are not native to America and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The continent of Africa is both beautiful and amazing.
Like time stood still
You have done an excellent job restoring these old photos.
It's amazing how these enhanced/restored pictures know exactly the colour of their clothes, hair, eyes, etc.
This work is meticulous and beautiful.
OMG! WHAT A MASTERPIECE!!!!
Astounding. The photos literally came to life. Beautiful work.
The original looks more realistic to me. Adding color makes them look like paintings. Plus it ages the individuals in some instances. Interesting technique though.
Amazing work. Thank you for sharing.
Wow incredible - ghosts of the past here with us on our screens
Wonderful work. Congratulations on such success.
The fact that people could afford to have a photo of themselves, or family must have been such a big deal.
So fascinating... the woman at 4:11 is stunning - I feel like there's a look of happiness with that couple... however, the with the last couple, there is an "air" of unhappiness... or maybe I'm just over-thinking it! Haha! Oh... and the girl at 4:41 - Wow!
It was not easy to look happy and relaxed when you need to sit still for several minutes without any movement. I think it's the photo technic who make them look like that. We have several family photos from that time and they also look like that.
Priceless. Thank you
These folks never heard of the internet nor airplanes nor Facebook nor television but they still manage to live their lives .
Wow, what a fantastic look back in history of these remarkable portraits. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this. A lot of painstakingly hard work and dedication have been put in to preserving these images. Well done.
Amazing.I notice that the women appear to have worn their wedding ring on the right index finger.
I noticed that as well!
Maybe the photo has been developed back to front?
👍
Could've been the fashion then.
My poor people. I really feel for my fellow African descendants who had to survive America at this time.
I just LOVE these photo enhancement restoration presentations!! Just Amazing!
Bringing to life the unidentified was most powerful. You do beautiful work, the AI animation of your other videos is amazing.
Wonderful and captivating. Would love to watch a video of how you actually carried out colourizing an image.
Usually i say "Zoom in" "Enhance" "Enhance" and it's finished.
The north was losing the war and the blacks wanted to fight but Lincoln refused, but then reconsidered....I believe because of their tenacity and dedication to have freedom they won the Civil War.
Oh my…. I cry for my ancestors in these pictures …
I love the video but I'm confused when it says these photographs were taken from 1845-1860.
Shutter speeds were very slow back then.
What's confusing?
@@aricohn5316 The war started in 1861?
@@russ838 lol
You do realize the civil war didn’t start until 1861 right? You say the images were captured from 1845-1860...
They were so photogenic 😍
Excellent work!
Learn from your history America. How easy it is to hate people because of your skin colour. Be kind. Remember your past.
It’s only “easy” for hateful people, it’s absolutely impossible for loving people to hate anyone for their skin color, or for any other silly reason. And most people just don’t think of others in skin tones. The media would love you to believe that they do, it helps keep people divided, at least, for people who fall for that sort of thing.
TV-watchers are the most prone to live in that twisted mentality, because it is spoonfed to them, and they eat it up-just like little babies. Everybody else lives outside that realm... You know, where people are either nice or rude, agreeable or stubborn, that sort of thing. They prefer the nice and agreeable people, and they think of ways to help the rude and stubborn people grow up.
Only mental babies make up reasons to dislike, let alone hate people.
@@misskim2058 Life is short. I wonder how aliens get along with others of their kind? Maybe we will live in peace but not in my life time.
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You have brought the past to life, you have given them a humanity we never could imagine was so close to our own present day. Thank you.
I broke down in tears at the first image.
The colorization of the African Americans is technically great, but that of the Caucasians looks like porcelain dolls: overlit, lack of sinovial folds, lack of skin textures.
It's not easy to colorize photos accurately when they where shot with 1800's camera technology.
@@mongke7858, but it's the 21st century, and we have AI that understands what a caucasian face looks like.
The soldier with the gun on his chest looks like Taye Diggs
Also, I see a lil Chadwick Boseman resemblance too
Looks like usain Bolt to me.
Amazing work for sure. Thank you for your hard work in restoring these precious photos of our past!
Very beautiful work. Congrats!💕💕
Yes it is beautiful.
How are you doing lygia?
@@garystein7883 I am fine, and you?
@@Lylyhyde cool. I hope you dont mind us bein friends and talk more
@@garystein7883 😘
You know how to drag the arse out of this.over six minutes long when you could have done it in one minute thirty seconds at most.
Who cares how long it is it’s better too see it long anyway..
Right all yankies
I can appreciate them as human beings on the old tintype. That being said... I appreciate the work that it took to colorise these old photographs and enjoyed watching this video.
They were hauntingly beautiful x
Amazing absolutely unbelievable work. well done.
Amazing job putting color to the photographs. I pray they had many good days.
Well done! Their eyes say it all. Most of them looked so tired and worn. Was an extremely tough time to live.
The sadness in the eyes of almost everyone in the photos tells a story in itself....
If only their descendants today could see and identify these people. This would mean so much to the family members.
Gracias yo amo la historia .
The eyes, the eyes!!!!
The piping on the uniforms is incorrect. If the soldiers were with an infantry unit, and it looks like they were, the piping is always light blue. Yellow is for cavalry and red is form artiller.
Was für schöne Aufnahmen und was für schöne Menschen! Sie scheinen zum Greifen nah zu sein. Und Respekt vor der überwältigenden äußerst gelungenen Aufarbeitung der Fotos!