Suprisingly color photos were actually first produced in 1861, however given the clarity and the coloring of the photos posted, I'm somewhat skeptical that they are real (but I could certainly be wrong).
from-
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/Encyclopedia/P/Ph/Photography.htm
"Color photography was explored throughout the 1800s. Initial experiments in color could not fix the photograph and prevent the color from fading. The first permanent color photo was taken in 1861 by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell Quick Summary (Scottish physicist whose equations unified electricity and magnetism and who recognized the electromagnetic nature of light (1831-1879)).
The first color film did not reach the market until 1907 and was based on dyed dots of potato starch. The first modern color film, Kodachrome Quick Summary:
Quick Summary not found for this subjectKodachrome, was introduced in 1935 based on three colored emulsions. Most modern color films, except Kodachrome, are based on technology developed for Agfacolor in 1936.
One of the early methods of taking color photos was to use three cameras. Each camera would have a color filter Quick This technique provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a color image in a darkroom."
Black and white photos don't do history justice-they seem dead and not a part of the real world- like a story from a textbook. Then you see the images in color, like the General in a cafe reading the paper...-it really hits home, it really happened and not so long ago...
http://www.ww2incolor.com
