The People of Old America 1860-1920 | RARE Photos Colourized and Brought to Life

Travel back to America between the eve of the Civil War and 1920, through a collection of rare archive photographs, carefully colourised and gently brought to life. From the sod houses of Nebraska to the streets of New York, we meet the peoples who made old America: homesteaders, Scandinavian farmers, new arrivals at Ellis Island, Jewish and Italian families of the Lower East Side, steelworkers, coal miners and mill families, African American students and farmers of the South, cowboys, Chinatown's families and the writer Zitkala-Ša. Photographs by Solomon D. Butcher, Lewis Hine, Augustus Sherman, Jacob Riis, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Arnold Genthe, Gertrude Käsebier, the Bain News Service and many unnamed photographers, including W. E. B. Du Bois's 1900 Paris exhibit. Every photo is credited below. How these pictures were made: each one is a real archive photograph. We restored it, added colour, and used AI to give it gentle movement. The faces are kept as they were photographed: we do not re-draw, smooth or "beautify" them. Where did your family settle in America, and where did they come from before that? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:33 Part One | The Old Families 3:02 Part Two | The Sod-House Frontier 4:48 Part Three | Swedes, Norwegians and Danes 6:54 Part Four | Ellis Island 9:31 Part Five | The Crowded City 13:11 Part Six | Mill and Mine 15:31 Part Seven | The South and the Mountains 18:04 Part Eight | The West PHOTO CREDITS AND LICENCES (numbers = order of the photos in the film; "end" = closing shot) A. F. Hawes / Library of Congress (public domain): 01 A young woman Unknown photographer / O'Bleness Family Collection, Ohio Digital Network, via DPLA (public domain): 02 Friends of the O'Bleness family Unknown photographer / Ohio Digital Network, via DPLA (public domain): 03 Stevens Blacksmith Shop Solomon D. Butcher / Nebraska State Historical Society (public domain): 04 The Rawding family and their sod house; 05 The Chrisman sisters Solomon D. Butcher / Library of Congress (public domain): 06 Isadore Haumont and family Solomon D. Butcher / via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): 07 Frederick Schreyer and his family Hartley studio / Norsk Folkemuseum (public domain): 08 A Norwegian American woman A. U. Opsahl / Norsk Folkemuseum (public domain): 09 A Norwegian American man Frederick Holcombe / Minnesota Digital Library, via DPLA (public domain): 10 Four generations of the Holcombe family; 11 A threshing crew at work Unknown photographer / via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): 12 The Truhlsen family at their farm Bain News Service / Library of Congress (public domain): 13 Immigrants carrying their luggage; 19 A Dutch family; 23 An elderly Russian Jewish man; 24 Prayers at the Jewish New Year; 25 An organ grinder on the East Side; 27 Women strikers selling newspapers; 28 A crowd on the boardwalk; 30 Coal miners; 31 Families of striking miners; 32 Miners leaving a coal mine near Scranton Lewis Hine / via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): 14 An Italian family in the baggage room; 18 Mother and child Augustus F. Sherman / University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, via DPLA (public domain): 15 Three Slovak women; 16 Two Romanian shepherds; 17 A Norwegian woman Jacob A. Riis / via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): 20 Bandits' Roost; 21 A cobbler at work; 22 Sisters Lewis Hine / Library of Congress (public domain): 26 The Albernesi family; 33 John Sousa and his family; 34 Workers of the Knoxville Cotton Mill Lewis Hine / New York Public Library (public domain): 29 Russian labourers outside a boarding house Unknown photographer / Library of Congress (public domain): 35 Students at Berea College; 37 A man and a woman; 38 Sam Williams with family and pickers in his cotton field; 40 The junior preparatory class American Red Cross / Library of Congress (public domain): 36 Berea College extension workers Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of Congress (public domain): 39 Students at the cheese press John C. H. Grabill / Library of Congress (public domain): 41 The Cow Boy W. D. Harper / Library of Congress (public domain): 42 Cowboys at lunch Arnold Genthe / Library of Congress (public domain): 43 A woman and a child Gertrude Käsebier / via Wikimedia Commons (public domain): 44 Zitkala-Ša Unknown photographer / Minnesota Digital Library, via DPLA (public domain): end The Martinson family in their sleigh No photo here is under a CC BY or CC BY-SA licence (all are public domain, CC0, Public Domain Mark or without known copyright restrictions); we credit every one anyway. MUSIC Music: "Crinoline Dreams", "Simple Duet", "Thatched Villagers", "String Impromptu Number 1", "Court of the Queen", "Promises to Keep" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0