Stunning Color Photographs of New York City in the Early 1900s

Life was colorful in turn of the century New York City. But because almost all the photographs we see from that era are in black and white, it is hard to imagine what the city looked like in its full color glory.

The Library of Congress holds the incredible collection of The Detroit Publishing Company who manufactured postcards and chronicled the world with their photographs from 1880-1920.

One of the processes used to achieve color was called the photochrom. Photochrom’s are color photo lithographs created from a black and white photographic negative. Color impressions are achieved through the application of multiple lithograph stones, one per color. In 1897, the Detroit Publishing Company brought the process over from Switzerland where it was first developed.

The images presented here were eventually used for postcards. Here is a look at New York in 1900.

South Street and Brooklyn Bridge 1900

Park Row a.k.a. Newspaper Row

West Street and Liberty Street

Ninth Avenue Elevated 110th Street Curve

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Marilyn Monroe in Connecticut, 1955

Pictures of Marilyn Monroe having some fun in the pool in Connecticut, 1955. Photos by Milton Greene.

11 Unbelievable Inventions of the 1960s

Some of these are early versions of things you still use... some are just plain insane.

A hat with storage capabilities.

The Cat-Mew Machine: a device that produces cat sounds, meant to keep away rodents.

The original portable boombox was a beanbag with a transistor radio.

A “road safety machine” to train motorcyclists. Otherwise known as your grandfather’s arcade game.

British folks trying out “foot tickling machines.” The purpose of which remains unclear other than sheer amusement and to say you tried it.

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18 Stunning Black and White Photographs Capture Street Scenes of Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s

In the early 1950s, Fan Ho, a 21-year-old writer and film student, began photographing Hong Kong in a time of dizzying transformation. Bored by his studies, Ho turned to his camera as a source of entertainment and relief, exploring Hong Kong's streets and making images that, seen a full seven decades later, somehow manage to mask any overt, telling signs of the era in which they were created.

Entering his pictures in a local photography contest, Ho was astonished when he was awarded the grand prize -- a windfall that encouraged him to continue further exploring photography (and later, filmmaking) as his life's calling. At last count — some 60 years after winning the contest— Ho has now won more than 280 awards, produced 20 feature length films and published numerous books of original photography.

Shot in an era long before photographers could simply glance at their LCD screens to verify their intent in making a photo had been realized, Ho's process of deliberate observation, waiting (sometimes for an entire day), composing, then recomposing is downright exhausting just to contemplate.

The layered black and white photographs are the visual diary of a patient observer; a diary that, save for the lack of diesel-spewing motorbikes, cell phones and neon advertisements, truly feels like it might have been written -- and photographed -- yesterday.

But then, that's largely the point: at a time when the Hong Kong's heartbeat was quickening to a frenetic, "modern" pace, Ho's patient and deliberate method of working allowed him to see through the bustle and distractions to the true timelessness of place.

Each of Ho's photographs represents immense planning and thought — not just about what the scene should look like, but how it should feel on film.

"I am a director," Ho told TIME, explaining that the people -- strangers and friends -- around him are his actors. Sometimes directing friends into position, at other times relying on passersby or the occasional stray alley cat to hit a specific spot, in a specific way, Ho would wait (and wait some more) for the exact moment when a street scene's essence revealed itself.

Construction, 1957

In a Buddhist Temple, 1961

W, 1959

Street Scene, 1956

Sidewalk Barber Shop, 1960

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20 Interesting Vintage Photos Capture Daily Life in Cairo From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Egyptian bootblacks cleaning a European's shoes in Cairo. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1870

A white lady in crinoline, attended by two women, in a harem in Cairo. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1870

Hired musicians, riding camels “decked in gaudy trappings”, lead the bridal party to the house of the bridegroom, Cairo. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1890

The tram station in Midan El-Ataba El-Khadra, or Ataba Square in Cairo, Egypt, March 1919. The building on the left surmounted by a globe is the Tiring department store. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

An Egyptian girl with feathers at a Cape to Cairo Red Cross fete in Central Hall. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). December 1915

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Fascinating Portraits of Factories and Small Shop Owners in Leeds in the 1970s

Born in 1943, Peter Mitchell joined the Ministry of Transport as a trainee straight from school, but thought better of it and went to study art at Hornsey College of Art in north London instead, specializing in silk-screen printing. Then, in 1973, he traveled to Leeds to visit friends living in a squat in the city's northern suburb of Headingley, and chose to stay. "I set up a silk-screen studio in the basement of where I was living," he says.

He has lived in Leeds ever since, and for most of that time has been earning his living as a graphic designer. But to pay the rent in 1973, he got a job as a lorry driver with a company called Sun Electrical. For the compulsive I-Spyer, it was a dream position. "I delivered electrical items such as fridges and heaters to factories and homes all over the city," he says. "For a couple of years, every day I went all round Leeds."

Eric Massheder, dripping-refinery worker, Vulcan Street, spring 1975.

Ready Mixed Concrete Ltd, Elland Road, summer 1977.

Mr Pearson, steam-grab driver, Victoria Bridge, spring 1974.

Mrs Collins and Mrs Clayton, Robinsons' Famous Fisheries, Beck Road, summer 1974.

Mr Reuben, Rugby Cabinet Co Ltd, Lucas Court, summer 1974.

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Two Actresses at Delphi Festival Adorn Costumes of Classical Greece, 1930

Two actresses at Delphi Festival adorn costumes of classical Greece, December 1930.

Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic.