Portrait of Marilyn Monroe taken by Richard Avedon, considered by some to be the most honest picture of her ever taken
History can only tell one story when it’s in black and white, but when it’s in color it’s as if the past is the present and you’re living in it. The following rare photos have been colorized to tell stories that you won’t find in history books and to give greater context for important moments in the past.
You may think that you know the stories behind these hard to find photos, but if you look closer you’ll find a story behind the story.
From true tales of the Wild West to fascinating stories of humans going above and beyond the call of duty to take care of their fellow man, these photos that have been colorized for the first time will not only inform and entertain… they’ll make you feel like you’re right there in the story.
Read on and see how colorized photos don’t just change history… they make it
Marilyn Monroe was always in the spotlight. Everything she did, said, and wore was put under a microscope by the press from the moment that she became a star. That kind of scrutiny would be a nightmare for anyone, but for someone as introverted as Monroe it was a terrible burden.
In one of her final interviews Monroe explained that she (and many of her fellow actors) are incredibly shy once the camera stops rolling:
A struggle with shyness is in every actor more than anyone can imagine. There is a censor inside us that says to what degree do we let go, like a child playing. I guess people think we just go out there, and you know, that’s all we do. Just do it. But it’s a real struggle. I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.
Soldiers playing soccer in no man’s land during The Christmas Truce, a series of unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914
This truce didn’t happen everywhere along the Western Front, and in fact Allied and Axis leaders were against it happening at all. That being said, these men deserved a break. The pauses in fighting were necessary to keep the soliders from completely losing their minds.
Two waiters serve two steel workers lunch on a girder high above New York City. 1930. The men were building the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
This photo is obviously a publicity stunt but it looks so cool that it’s doubtful anyone cared. Aside from all the dare devil photos that were being taken at the time skyscraper construction was fairly safe. Sure, there were dangers but most men working on these buildings lived to tell the tale. Hopefully these gentlemen enjoyed the five star service of the Waldorf-Astoria even though they were hundreds of feet in the air.
Laborers take their lunch break on a steel beam atop the 70-story RCA building in Rockefeller Center
Strangely, the photographer of this picture of 11 men sitting 850 feet above New York City remains a mystery. In 2012, documentary filmmaker Seán Ó Cualáin attempted to get to the bottom of the top of this shot. While he didn’t conclusively name every person in the photo – or figure out who took it – he did narrow the list of people involved down to a number that at least makes sense. It seems for now that this photo will remain a mystery.