Historic Photos In Color: Lincoln, Capone, Oswald ... And More

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In history books and televised documentaries, we see Abraham Lincoln as a blurred, distant figure in black and white.

With advances to photo technology, colorizing historic black and white photos seems to change the view of history.

In color, one can look into the President's eyes, notice the wrinkled facial features contrasted with skin tone and the flecks of gray on his beard.

This photo of Lincoln was colorized and posted online by Reddit user named klassixx.

"The color, when added convincingly, removes that degree of separation we might have from a black and white photo, hopefully bringing us a little bit closer to the time the photo was taken, and the reality of it all," klassixx wrote.

Here is a colorized photo of Chicago gangster Al Capone done by zuzahin. A viewer is drawn to his steely gray eyes and a gold pocket watch chain that stands out in front of a charcoal suit.

There is this photograph of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson smoking and drinking a Fresca during halftime of the 1967 Super Bowl.

The color draws attention to the green glass bottle of soda, the orange glow on the cigarette tip, the layers of athletic socks. The spartan atmosphere of the locker room is also more noticeable.

Movie stars appear even more strikingly beautiful.

Like Liz Taylor

And naturally beautiful like, Audrey Hepburn

One of the most shocking news images of the 20th Century, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, takes on a whole different perspective--even though there really isn't much color in the frame.