We’ve all seen old pictures – seeing them in color seems to add a different dimension to them.

Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

Connecticut town on the sea. Stonington, Connecticut, November 1940.

Farm auction. Derby, Connecticut, September 1940.

Children gathering potatoes on a large farm. Vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940.

Trucks outside of a starch factory. Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940.

Headlines posted in street-corner window of newspaper office (Brockton Enterprise). Brockton, Massachusetts, December 1940.

Children in the tenement district. Brockton, Massachusetts, December 1940.

Going to town on Saturday afternoon. Greene County, Georgia, May 1941.

Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains. White Plains, Greene County, Georgia, June 1941.

Barker at the grounds at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941.

Backstage at the “girlie” show at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941.

At the Vermont state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941.

Couples at square dance. McIntosh County, Oklahoma, 1939 or 1940.

Orchestra at square dance. McIntosh County, Oklahoma, 1939 or 1940.

Children asleep on bed during square dance. McIntosh County, Oklahoma, 1939 or 1940.

Jack Whinery, homesteader, and his family. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

The Faro Caudill family eating dinner in their dugout. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

Saying grace before the barbeque dinner at the New Mexico Fair. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

Homesteader and his children eating barbeque at the New Mexico Fair. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

School children singing. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940.

Garden adjacent to the dugout home of Jack Whinery, homesteader. Pie Town, New Mexico, September 1940.

Mill at the Camp Bird Mine. Ouray County, Colorado, October 1940.

Distributing surplus commodities. St. Johns, Arizona, October 1940.

Hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed. Delta County, Colorado, September 1940.

Hay stack and automobile of peach pickers. Delta County, Colorado, 1940.

On main street of Cascade. Cascade, Idaho, July 1941.

Road cut into the barren hills which lead into Emmett. Emmett, Idaho, July 1941.

Shasta dam under construction. California, June 1942.

Boy building a model airplane as girl watches. Robstown, Texas, January 1942.

Grand Grocery Company. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1942.

Young African American boy. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1942 or 1943.

Wisdom, Montana, April 1942.

A Fourth of July celebration. St. Helena Island, South Carolina, 1939.

Planting corn along a river. Northeastern Tennessee, May 1940.

African Americans fishing in creek near cotton plantations. Belzoni, Mississippi, October 1939.

Bayou Bourbeau plantation, a Farm Security Administration cooperative. Vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana, August 1940.

African American’s tenant’s home beside the Mississippi River levee. Near Lake Providence, Louisiana, June 1940.

A crossroads store, bar, “juke joint,” and gas station in the cotton plantation area. Melrose, Louisiana, June 1940.

Boys fishing in a bayou. Schriever, Louisiana, June 1940.

A store with live fish for sale. Vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana, July 1940.

African American migratory workers by a “juke joint.” Belle Glade, Florida, February 1941.

Children aiming sticks as guns, lined up against a brick building. Washington, D.C.(?), between 1941 and 1942.

Shulman’s market, on N at Union Street S.W. Washington, D.C., between 1941 and 1942.

House. Washington, D.C.(?), between 1941 and 1942.

Chapel, Vadito. Near Penasco, New Mexico, Spring 1943.

A welder who works in the round-house at the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company’s Proviso yard. Chicago, Illinois, December 1942.

View in a departure yard at Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company’s Proviso yard at twilight. Chicago, Illinois, December 1942.

Switchman throwing a switch at Chicago and Northwest Railway Company’s Proviso yard. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943.

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of the Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943.

Putting the finishing touches on a rebuilt caboose at the rip tracks at Proviso yard. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943.

Switch engine in yard near Calumet Park stockyards, Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. Calumet City, Illinois, January 1943.

General view of part of the South Water Street freight depot of the Illinois Central Railroad Chicago, Illinois, May 1943.

Mrs. Viola Sievers, one of the wipers at the roundhouse giving a giant “H” class locomotive a bath of live steam. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943.

Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943.

Children stage a patriotic demonstration. Southington, Connecticut, May 1942.

At Beecher Street School. Southington, Connecticut, May 1942.

Street corner. Dillon, Montana, August 1942.

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range Madison County, Montana, August 1942.

Servicing an A-20 bomber. Langley Field, Virginia, July 1942.

Marine glider at Page Field. Parris Island, South Carolina, May 1942.

M-4 tank crews of the United States. Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 1942.June 1942.

Welder making boilers for a ship, Combustion Engineering Company. Chattanooga, Tennessee,

Construction work at the TVA’s Douglas Dam. Tennessee, June 1942.

Assembling B-25 bombers at North American Aviation. Kansas City, Kansas, October 1942.

P-51 ‘Mustang’ fighter in flight. Inglewood, California, October 1942.

Woman is working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber Tennessee, February 1943. Detroit, Michigan, November 1942.

Hanna furnaces of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation, stock pile of coal and iron ore.

Rural school children. San Augustine County, Texas, April 1943.

Rural school children. San Augustine County, Texas, April 1943.

Worker at carbon black plant. Sunray, Texas, 1942.

incredible! thanks for sharing..!

Wow! incredible pictures. I would guess they were all taken by the same person? incredible clarity and color!!!

Any guess as to which one of these guys was the machine gunner (and had his head sticking up out of the turret)?

Center dude

What a hard life, but to them they were making ends meet with work (when there was work) and entertainment all with what they have. I look back at those days through pictures, books and stories from older folks that I talk to (my mother in law grew up on a ranch in South Dakota, no in house plumbing till she was in her 20′s, she is 83 now) and wonder how anyone could believe in this day and age, that these are harder times. I bought my first car in 1977, I was so happy I took it to an older couple (in their 90′s) to show them. I remember him chuckling and he dug out a picture of his first car—a buckboard and horse, he paid $6 in the 1890′s.
my 2 cents
MikeyV

mikeyV: What a hard life, but to them they were making ends meet

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The electric company was doing emergency maintenance on a power station in my neighborhood on Sunday night and for an hour and half, there was no power. I was lost at first … until I realized I had a full charge on my iPhone and I could connect to the internet after all.

ok now those are impressive!!!! wow!!

Rob

Great photos…Thanks.

These make my brain hurt. I can’t imagine a past that isn’t black and white. It’s really weird for me to see these and know they’re from the black and white era…

This image could have come straight out of a scary 1970s or 1980s Hollywood B movie.

Color seems to make things more real & more recent.

great photos of American history. during the war years.
great stuff

Those are very well done if colorized, I have alot of old buildings in my town id love to see what they looked like in their prime, These make you have an appreciation that the teenagers today dont grow up with.