Happy 4th of July! The Bowery of 1930 colorized

What's the 4th of July without a little color? If not from fireworks then from a black and white photo from the summer of 1930 brought into color.

Haven't done any colorizing recently but some unavoidable lulls in an Edison-Bell model 433 cathedral radio (ca 1931) restoration had left some time for other projects. This being the Bowery around Chatham Square (I think) with the 3rd Avenue Elevated in the background being about the same time as the radio when new seemed a good fit. The original B&W I found on pinterest and traced it to this fairly good sized scan from Photographium.com.

The RCA 9K3 which took up much of my time was finished and came out well-

Piping old time radio shows through this old girl sets a good mood for vintage photo colorizing.
Can't be all about politics.



Donald Cavaioli

More old Manhattan colorized

Sorry for another quickie, been busy. Antique radios don't restore themselves and I've got one hell of a backlog to go through. Anyway, I should have part 3 of my strange dream posted tomorrow but otherwise, the news is either boring (like the impeachment show) or been covered to death by everybody and his brother (like the corona virus).  I'm starting to get tired of the multicult and civic nationalism failures and feel like I'm repeating myself too much. I hate repeating myself and being a one note song. That's why there were sometimes long stretches between posts waiting for something interesting to write about or too busy with other things. But my New Year's resolution is to post daily so here's at least something:

This is 9th Street at 3rd Avenue which has the elevated train line in Manhattan ca 1902. The forerunner of the subway was this and other elevated lines or Els as we like to call them. This photo was taken just before the lines were electrified and shows an old steam engine pulling the cars.

This photo may have come from NYC Subway.org but I'm not 100% sure. I am sure I did the color work. Enjoy.



Donald Cavaioli

Turn of the 20th Century West Village in color

This is Abingdon Square, West Village, on 8th Avenue and Bleeker Street ca 1908. Seems like a nice place and probably reasonably priced as H.P. Lovecraft did live around that area or will live there in the not too distant future relative to this photo. One this that would be surprising for 1908 is that there was still a horse drawn streetcar. Shouldn't TARS have gone all electric by then?

I can't recall where I got the original B&W photo but I do recall that I did colorize it and at least that's something.


Donald Cavaioli

When cowboys and steam locomotive trains ran in the streets of Manhattan

There never seem to be enough hours in the day or enough spare time to finish a draft post or two...
But for a quickie post to keep the proverbial pot boiling something you'd never expect to see in Manhattan but a colorized B&W photo tells no lies...

A cowboy on horseback does the flagman job to clear traffic along 10th Avenue and 28th Street for that steam locomotive hauling some freight in the early 1920's.

Can't recall where the original black and white photo is from otherwise credit where credit is due but the colorizing is my own handiwork.


Donald Cavaioli

Merry Christmas!

From the mausoleum the caretakers wishes one and all a Merry Christmas!

And from the world long dead in black and white, brought digitally back to a color semblance of life:

For those who think Tesla EVs are something new and exciting in transportation, think again.
An electric tour bus about to depart on a city sightseeing tour from Broadway and W 23rd Street in 1905. An earlier work of mine that I'd like to re-do, but still acceptable.


Donald Cavaioli

Brooklyn Bridge Plaza ca 1907 colorized

Original black & white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge Plaza with the Sands Point station in the background ca 1907. Smoke and the sky is harder to colorize than you think. I just can't get rid of the funny tint after colorizing this photo. It came out okay but I'm not completely happy with the result.


Donald Cavaioli

The past comes alive.

How about something different?
Here's a photo of the original IRT City Hall station from what I think is the opening day of October 27, 1904. Color I added in with the aid of an app called 'Recolored' in this operation of photographic necromancy. I would credit the source of the original black and white image but I can't recall where I got the photo from. Getty Images or Shorpy most likely.

One of these days, I'll get to the 5 or 6 half written drafts and post them but until then, enjoy viewing a long ago world as the people who lived then would have seen it.


Donald Cavaioli