New York City in 1911 in Color

The Flatiron Building in 1911.

Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern visited New York City in 1911 and took some footage that has survived. While it was not color film, modern technology can supply that well enough. What you see on this page are original images from 1911 that have been processed to bring them up as close as possible to modern standards.

In 1911, the film industry was just beginning to transition from the neighborhoods shown in this film to Hollywood, California. A good cross-section of Manhattan is shown, including the Williamsburgh and Brooklyn Bridges, the Flatiron Building, the docks down near the South Street Seaport, cars, and horse-drawn wagons jostling for position on crowded city streets, Greenwich Village, Herald Square, elevated subways (which were just about to be sent underground), Times Square, paddlewheel steamer Rosedale (sunk on 16 July 1912 off Rockaway Beach), and many other sites.

If you love history as I do, you may find this film quite evocative of a time long gone.

The paddle-wheel steamer Rosedale, which appears briefly in the film, was a regular passage between Manhattan and Rockaway. It sank about a year after this film was taken in a collision with a larger ship.

Kingston Daily Freeman, Volume XLI, Number 231, 16 July 1912.

If you enjoy history as much as I do, you may find this film to be quite evocative of an age long gone by. I also have some classic footage of:

1920s Paris Cafe Society

1890s Children in Color

1925 Dordrecht, Holland

Paris in the 1890s

The 1902 Flying Train of Wuppertal, Germany

San Francisco in 1906

Vancouver in 1907

New York City in 1939

Hollywood in 1931

New York City in 1911

1935 Beverly Hills in Color

1951 Wilshire Boulevard, LA, in Color

2021