Amazing American Civil War Photos Turned Into Glorious Color

Color photography may not have been widely used until the 1930s but that hasn’t stopped an active group of Redditors from looking to change the past. On the Colorized History Subreddit, Redditors use photo manipulation to add color to historical black and white images. 

Two of the most prolific users, Mads Dahl Madsen and Jordan J. Lloyd (who has since started Dynachrome, a digital image restoration agency), have done United States history a favor by taking a large amount of the Civil War photographs available at the Library of Congress and turning them into realistic and beautiful looking color. 

The Most Iconic Civil War Photos Turned Into Glorious Color

 

Humans are visual creatures and we tend to visualize things in the way they are presented to us. Therefore, when you look at monochromatic photo of an historic event you are imaging it in  black and white.
We are used to watching historic photos in monochromatic format, that’s why we  are always  filled with an extreme sense of fascination and wonderment whenever we encountered a historical image or video restored with color, especially if that historic image dates to 19th century from a iconic event such as The American Civil War. The photography was not invented until the 1820s,  so the American Civil War was one of the first wars to be photographed.
TIME commissioned Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway to restore and colorize some of the most important pictures shot, in black and white, during the  American Civil War. This is an interesting opportunity to try to reimagine the Civil war in lively and vivid colors.

Robert Smalls, S.C. M.C. Born in Beaufort, SC, April 1839
Summary
African American legislator.