Life in the 1800s

This believed to be the only known video clip with sound of Civil War Veterans playing their instruments. Only 32 seconds exist. It's likely either from the 1929 GAR Encampment in Portland, Maine (Sept. 8-13), or from the 1938 Reunion in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which had both Union and Confederate soldiers in attendance and occurred between June 29 and July 6. For this video, I colorized it using AI optimization software, interpolated it to 60 frames/second, up-scaled to 4k, speed-adjusted it and refined it with De Blur, Sharpness and Stabilization. Our new music channel - Life in the Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24pSII56FIBAAI3FAu_ygw/featured

This was the second inauguration of William McKinley as president of the United States and was held on Monday, March 4, 1901, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 29th inauguration in America and marked the commencement of the second and final term of William McKinley as president and the only term of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president. McKinley died 194 days into this term, and Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency. For this video, I colorized it using AI optimization software, interpolated it to 60 frames/second, up-scaled to 4k, speed-adjusted it and refined it with De Blur, Sharpness and Stabilization. Our new music channel - Life in the Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24pSII56FIBAAI3FAu_ygw/featured

This is the only audio recording of Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939). It was recorded on December 7, 1938 at his home at Maresfield Gardens in London, England. He was 82 years old at the time. Audio has been restored and remastered for maximum quality. Here is our new music channel - Life in the Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24pSII56FIBAAI3FAu_ygw/featured Freud left Vienna on June 4, 1938, arriving two days later in London, England. Upon arrival, Sigmund and Martha settled into a new home at 20 Maresfield Gardens. A heavy cigar smoker, Freud had been suffering from mouth cancer since 1923 and had already undergone 30 operations. After his cancer returned, his doctors declared that the tumor was inoperable. He was eventually forced to wear an oral prosthesis to keep his nasal and oral cavities separated, which made it difficult for him to either eat or speak. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Filmed on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, 1897, this is the legendary title match between James J. Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons in Carson City, Nevada. It was the first boxing match in Nevada after Governor Reinhold Sadler had signed the bill legalizing prizefighting on January 29, 1897. Music in this video (5th song): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKp9IGjklw&t=1130s Here is our new music channel, Life in the Music (home page): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24pSII56FIBAAI3FAu_ygw The boxing ring itself was built in the same year and was located at the corner of Musser and Harbin streets. People from all over the country came to watch this fight. At the time, Nevada had a total population of less than 60,000. The state's economy had been somewhat struggling since the 1870s. They had legalized gambling, but that didn’t get much notice across the country. The decision to permit fighting might be seen as the beginning of Nevada accepting and allowing — even encouraging — what many other residents of the state objected to, for the purpose of boosting the state's economy. The two fighters trained beforehand near Carson City. Newspapers sent correspondents to cover the preparation and then the fight. Every day, stories went across the country. The promoter promoter Dan Stuart scheduled the fight for March 17, St. Patrick's Day, primarily because of the Irish heritage of Corbett, the expected winner. Ticket sales were well below expectations. But he (Stuart) made back his investment because three cameras made by Thomas Edison’s firm were nearby, and Enoch Rector filmed the fight. It was shown in theaters around the country. Video footage has been colorized, edited and speed-adjusted. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Here is Thomas Edison talking about his early experiments with electric lamps in the 1870s. It was filmed at Edison's home in Ft. Myers, Florida, in 1929. Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was born in Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children of Samuel and Nancy Edison. His father was an exiled political activist from Canada, while his mother was an accomplished school teacher and a major influence in Edison’s early life. He held over 1000 patents for his inventions, and is credited with inventions such as the first practical incandescent light bulb, electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, motion pictures and the phonograph. Video footage has been colorized, speed-adjusted and restored with audio enhancements for clarity. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Julius Franklin Howell (January 17, 1846 - June 19, 1948) joined the Confederate Army when he was 16. After surviving a few battles, Howell eventually found himself in a Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. It was here where he first heard that President Lincoln was shot the night before. In 1947, at the age of 101, Howell made this recording at the Library of Congress. Audio has been restored for clarity. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is Elihu Thomson, engineer and inventor born on March 29, 1853. In this video, he talks about some childhood memories while living in Philadelphia in the 1860s. It was filmed on June 21, 1932. This video has been colorized, speed-adjusted and restored with audio enhancements for clarity. Note: Thomson meant to say "75 years ago" rather than "65 years ago" in the beginning. His family shipped over to America in 1857. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Thomson Elihu Thomson was born March 29, 1853, in Manchester, England. His father, who worked as a mill mechanic, was thrown out of work in 1857 and decided to emigrate to the United States. In 1858 the family settled in Philadelphia, where Elihu grew up. His father's work as a mechanic stimulated Thomson's interest in mechanical and chemical processes. From his early teens he read widely, built models, and conducted simple chemical experiments. At Philadelphia's Central High School Thomson was an outstanding student who attracted the interest of his instructors. Upon graduating in 1870 he was offered a teaching position at the school. Between 1870 and 1880 Thomson taught high school in Philadelphia. At the same time he and a fellow teacher named Edwin J. Houston experimented with electricity and succeeded in building a practical electric arc lighting system. In 1879 a group of New England businessmen took an interest in the Thomson-Houston arc lighting system and offered to finance its fabrication. In 1880 Thomson moved to New Britain, Connecticut, as the company's chief engineer. By 1881 Thomson had designed the best arc lighting system in the country, but sales were slow. In 1882 a group of Lynn, Massachusetts, businessmen purchased the company and changed the name to the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This was filmed on March 18, 1915 in New York City. The movie showing that day was "On the Stroke of Twelve" starring Gertrude McCoy and Bigelow Cooper. This is a glimpse back in time when "movies" were called "photo plays." Also, notice on the sign above the entrance, the word "today" was still written as two words, "to-day."

Filmed between September 8-13, 1929, in Portland, Maine. This was the 63rd National GAR Encampment for Union soldiers of the Civil War. Video was upscaled to 4k, adjusted to 60fps and colorized for clarity. On September 8, 1929, Elise Fellows White, a native of Skowhegan who was living in Portland, Maine at the time, wrote this in her journal: "Portland is full of old soldiers. The Grand Army of the Republic is holding one of their encampments here. A trainload of five hundred came in today from Portland, Oregon. As we drove down Congress Street we saw the blue coats with medals and the broad brimmed hats and gray heads. They all carry themselves with great dignity. My mother remarked how we miss poor Uncle Charlie. He would have been here. These soldiers have a characteristic expression. Sargent’s portrait of General Chamberlain shows it. The picture of the veteran with the empty sleeve shows it: eyes large, rather hollow-set, with drooping lids and a look of deep sadness. Well, we shall hear the "doings," speeches, etc. over the radio, and they will be good." This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Two former slaves talk about life during the times of slavery in America, referring to the 1840s and 1850s. The lady on the right was born in 1842 and the man on the left was born in 1852. Filming took place in 1944. The video has been speed-adjusted, sharpened and colorized for best clarity. Audio was restored with EQ adjustment and noise removal tools. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Albert l. Salt, born in 1867, was 14 years old when he began working for Western Electric in 1881. He rose up through the ranks to become President of the Graybar Company, which was spun off from Western Electric in 1925 and handled their electrical appliance market. Graybar is still in business today and was named after the founders of Western Electric, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton. This was filmed in 1930. This video has been colorized, speed-adjusted and restored with audio enhancements for clarity. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

President William McKinley was one of four U.S. Presidents that were assassinated, along with Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and JFK. This was filmed the day before while giving his last speech on September 5, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Over 50,000 people were in attendance that day. McKinley was 6 months into his second term at the time. This video was colorized, speed-adjusted and restored.

Civil War confederate veterans dancing to traditional fiddle music in 1930, as most likely was done many times before during the actual Civil War to keep optimism of the soldiers up. Video was colorized, upscaled to 4k and optimized for maximum clarity. Contains original audio with EQ adjustments. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-born Presbyterian minister who is best known for inventing the game of basketball at a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA in 1891. This interview of him is from a radio program called "We the People" and was aired on Jan. 31, 1939. Audio has been restored and optimized for maximum clarity. By 1892, basketball had grown so popular on campus that Dennis Horkenbach (editor-in-chief of The Triangle, the Springfield college newspaper) featured it in an article called "A New Game",and there were calls to call this new game "Naismith Ball", but Naismith refused. By 1893, basketball was introduced internationally by the YMCA movement. From Springfield, Naismith went to Denver, where he acquired a medical degree, and in 1898, he joined the University of Kansas faculty at Lawrence. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

In 1909, Thomas Edison visited Mark Twain at Stormfield, his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed this footage. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film. This is the only known existing film footage of Twain. This video was speed adjusted, restored and optimized for maximum clarity.

Filmed on Broadway and 23rd Street, New York, N.Y. on October 26, 1903. This street level view is of the Broadway side of the Fuller Building near the narrow north corner. Filmed on a very windy day, pedestrians of various descriptions are seen passing by the camera, clutching hats and skirts against the wind. According to some New York City historians, this corner was known as the windiest corner of the city, and in the era of the long skirt, standing on it was considered a good vantage point for a glimpse of a lady's ankle. Policemen would chase away such loungers from the 23rd Street corner, giving rise to the expression "twenty-three skidoo." This video was colorized, speed corrected and restored using AI/Deep Learning.

Here are three different scenes of public swimming pools (baths) and water slides, all filmed in 1897. I colorized, cleaned up and restored the video as much as possible using AI algorithms. Also added is audio for ambience. Scene 1: Filmed August 22, 1897, at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, California. Scene 2: Filmed August 1897, at the Lurline Baths in San Francisco, California. Scene 3: Filmed August 22, 1897, at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, California.

This is a video of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Fire Department racing to a fire on Christmas Day, December 25, 1896. The video was colorized/restored by myself, with audio ambience added, using AI/deep learning.

Filmed in September of 1898 at Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, Long Island, New York (year says 1897 on video, sorry typo). I colorized and restored this video using AI/deep learning algorithms. Of the thousand and more men who left New York for the Cuban Campaign of the Spanish American War, scarcely three hundred were able to shoulder their rifles to march before the camera on this day at Camp Wikoff. The film shows many of the companies reduced to seven or eight men, yet the American flag and patriotic attitude still stand strong in these courageous soldiers.

Filmed on May 10, 1903 in New York, from the Hudson River. I colorized and restored as much of this video as possible utilizing AI/Deep Learning algorithms. Also added is sound ambience. From a moving boat, the film depicts the Hudson River (i.e., North River) shoreline and the piers of lower Manhattan beginning around Fulton Street and extending to Castle Garden and Battery Park. It begins at one of the American Line piers (Pier 14 or 15, opposite Fulton Street) where an American Line steamer, either the "New York" or "Paris," is seen docked. The camera passes one of the Manhattan-to-New Jersey commuter ferries to Jersey City. Proceeding south, the distinct double towers of the Park Row, or Syndicate Building, erected in 1897-98, can be seen in the background. A coastal freighter is next, then Trinity Church appears, to the left of which can be seen the Surety Building, as a tug with a "C" on the stack passes in foreground. Several small steamboats come into view, and the B.T. Babbitt Soap factory at Pier 6 is seen, followed by the Pennsylvania Railroad piers (#5 & #4), with a group of docked railroad car floats, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad piers (#3 & #2), also with car floats. Next are the Bowling Green Building (rectangular, with facade to camera), the Whitehall Building (vertical, thin side to camera), followed by Pennsylvania Railroad Pier #1. Pier A (with a clock tower) is seen with the New York Harbor Police steam boat "Patrol" at its end. The Bowling Green Offices and the Produce Exchange at Bowling Green are visible in the background. The breakwater (sheltered landing) and the New York City Fireboat House appears and the distinctive round structure, Castle Garden, once a fort and immigrant station, but at the time of filming the City Aquarium, comes into view. The camera then pans east along the Battery Park promenade: the Barge Office (with tower) is visible in the distance, and further out the Brooklyn shoreline with the grain elevators at Atlantic Avenue can be seen. This view is continued, with only a minor break in continuity, in the film Panorama of Sky Scrapers and Brooklyn Bridge From the East River. Together they comprise a sweep around the southern tip of Manhattan, from Fulton Street on the Hudson to the Brooklyn Bridge.

This is the oldest known recording in existence of any U.S. President in history. It was recorded on an Edison wax cylinder in 1889. I restored and re-mastered the audio. The original was extremely degraded, but I eliminated as much of the noise as possible without degrading further the actual voice data. I also enhanced the ambience of the audio to regain as much of the natural overtones as possible, as well as provide an idea of what it actually sounded like if you were in attendance for his speech in 1889.

Filmed on June 1, 1899. The head of the column is just turning into 14th Street from Broadway, the Morton House forming part of the background. Crowds line both sides of the cable car tracks, falling back as the band heading the first division swings around Dead Man's Curve and passes the camera. Chief Devery makes a fine showing, as also do his men, with their white gloves and helmets, shining buttons and spick and span appearance in general. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is Richard Clarke (15 December 1845 – 5 May 1930), born in Yorkshire, England, who was a United States frontiersman, Pony Express rider, actor, and armed forces member. During his career, Clarke fought alongside George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn against the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

These are Civil War veterans performing rifle-musket drills at a 1929 reunion. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is a video filmed in 1930 of a man who was in Ford's Theater when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He was sitting in what was known as the orchestra section, which was the ground floor seating section. He was also standing on the porch to the Petersen House when Lincoln was carried inside. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.