77 Colorized Photos Of The 1920s That Capture The Jazz Age
From flappers to gangsters, see the Roaring Twenties in breathtaking color.
The 1920s were a strange, fascinating time in Western culture. Also known as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, it was a time of new technology, more freedom for women, musical innovation, and excess. At the same time, there was a nationwide ban against alcohol in America, an increase in organized crime as a result, and a bit of ironic hindsight, given that the Great Depression followed this extravagant golden age.
Yet there is undoubtedly a sense of nostalgia when we look back at the 1920s. From the popular fashion of flappers to the luxurious parties depicted in famous books and movies like The Great Gatsby, the 1920s were certainly a vibrant time period. Unfortunately, the black and white photography of the era often fails to capture that vibrancy in full detail.
Thankfully, we’ve gathered a collection of colorized photos of the 1920s that breathe new life into this bygone era of the past.
A group of women posing with bottles of alcohol during the Roaring Twenties.Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images Members of the St. Louis Cotton Club band. Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo A group of women at an anti-war demonstration.Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo A crowd of people celebrating the end of Prohibition in the United States.American Stock/Getty Images Norwegian pole vault champion Charles Hoff performing the Charleston — a popular 1920s dance — with a female dancer.Bettmann/Getty Images A celebration in New York's Central Park.Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone.Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo U.S. President Calvin Coolidge poses for a photo with a group of Osage Native Americans.Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo Prohibition officers destroying a keg of beer.IanDagnall Computing/Alamy Stock Photo People visiting the Krazy Kat speakeasy and Bohemian cafe in Washington, D.C. Hum Historical/Alamy Stock Photo Golfers out on the green.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo A man and two women pictured on Long Beach, New York.Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Members of the National Woman's Party protesting in Chicago.Glasshouse Images/Alamy Stock Photo Light tanks in a field.D and S Photography Archives/Alamy Stock Photo New York City under construction.Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo People waiting to go inside the Krazy Kat.Public Domain A group of people dancing and frolicking as a band plays live music.Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy Stock Photo A group of people on a sailboat, celebrating Independence Day.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Dry Agents pour illegal alcohol out of a keg and into a sewer during Prohibition.Buyenlarge/Getty Images A woman driving an early Ford automobile.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Patrons of the Zellie cabaret in Paris.Bettmann/Getty Images Young orphan boys shining boots.Glasshouse Images/Alamy Stock Photo A vendor selling toy snakes at a boardwalk.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo A woman diving off a rock and into the arms of a lifeguard ready to catch her.Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A young couple riding a motorcycle.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Two women setting up camp near the mountains.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Children sledding down the snowy hills at Rainier National Park.Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A rainy night in Los Angeles, California.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Young people playing a game of marbles.Hulton Archive/Getty Images Several people and horses outside a log hotel.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo A crowd of people watching performers on a stage at a small fair.Archive Image/Alamy Stock Photo Photographers attempting to capture pictures of an airplane as it comes in for a landing.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Native American children riding with their parent on horseback.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Law enforcement officials testing out early models of bulletproof vests.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Ice skaters enjoying tea on a bench placed upon skis on the ice.Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A group of travelers riding horses.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo A young girl asking for gasoline for her small pedal car.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Four flappers in London doing the Charleston.Bettmann/Getty Images George Gordon Moore (center left), a.k.a. the "Real Gatsby," at an outdoor barbecue.Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Baltimore anti-Prohibition Congressman J.P. Hill serving homemade hard cider illegally to a crowd in his own backyard. Bettmann/Getty Images A young farm boy fishing with his dog.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Dry Agents "sampling" confiscated alcohol.Bettmann/Getty Images A group of flapper women in their swimwear.Topical Press Agency/Getty Images A group of flappers and young men at an underground nightclub.General Photographic Agency/Getty Images A crashed Ford Model T.Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo Dancers at Small’s Paradise in Harlem.Bettmann/Getty Images A group of formerly enslaved people, now free, gathered at an almshouse.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo The club Le Monocle, a Parisian lesbian bar.Paul Thompson/FPG/Getty Images A car of people driving through a gate that was cut out of a sequoia.imageBROKER.com GmbH & Co. KG/Alamy Stock Photo A flapper from a Mack Sennett comedy.Library Of Congress A dog sitting on the spare tire of an automobile.Darling Archive/Alamy Stock Photo A masked model lays in a bed in the middle of a crowded ballroom in Berlin.General Photographic Agency/Getty Images Downtown New York on a rainy day.Touring the world in the 20s and 30s/Alamy Stock Photo The length of women's bathing suits being measured at a beach.GraphicaArtis/Getty Images A humorous 1920s photograph of a dog "smoking" a cigarette.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A crowded, small speakeasy full of men drinking illegal alcohol.Bettmann/Getty Images A young couple walking down the street, smoking cigarettes.Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A man crouching down next to a not-so-subtle sign indicating a nearby speakeasy.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images A child listening to the radio.Wikimedia Commons A waiter polishing glasses as nearby patrons toast. Bettmann/Getty Images Pedestrians observe the aftermath of an auto wreck in Washington, D.C.Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo Clara Bow, a silent film actress who eventually made a successful transition to "talkies."Bow starred in a film called It, which led to the still-popular term "It Girl" being coined.
Wikimedia Commons Film actress Anna Q. Nilsson prepping to whip a cigarette out of athlete Snowy Baker's mouth with a bullwhip.Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A man forced to sell his car after his bets on Wall Street did not pay off. Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo Al Capone, the most notorious gangster of Prohibition-era Chicago.Wikimedia Commons The Greenwich Village Girls posing on a car.Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo A group of patrons ordering drinks from a speakeasy during the Prohibition era.Keystone/Getty Images A policeman stands next to a wrecked car and several cases of illegal moonshine.Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo Children playing with a tiny, motor-less vehicle.Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo A young woman resting in the sand near a lighthouse.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo Colleen Moore, a silent film actress and fashion icon who helped popularize the short bob cut. Margaret Chute/Getty Images A trio of flappers pose for a photo with a half-dressed young man.Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images A Prohibition-era bartender pouring beer.Bettmann/Getty Images Actress Dorothy Mackaill, who starred in the film The Whip. 1928.Hulton Archive/Getty Images A group of women in the 1920s posing next to a convertible automobile. Hulton Archive/Getty Images A member of the U.S. Coast Guard on lookout.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo The town of Columbus, Kentucky, in the wake of the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River.ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo
77 Colorized Images That Show The Roaring Twenties As It Truly Was View GalleryProhibition And The Birth Of Speakeasies
It's odd to think that the 1920s, a time characterized by lavish, booze-filled parties, began just after the introduction of the Volstead Act and the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which introduced the United States to Prohibition. That meant it was illegal to manufacture, sell, and transport alcohol — and therefore, nobody could legally drink.
That doesn't mean Americans were left without options, though. It just took some enterprising individuals to find a way to fill this gap in the market.
Bootlegging — procuring alcohol from outside the U.S. and illegally importing and selling it — proved to be a lucrative business venture for notorious criminals of the time, like Jack "Legs" Diamond or George "Bugs" Moran.
Alcohol was still being supplied to the U.S., but now there was another problem: There was nowhere to drink it. Undeterred by laws, gangsters soon began to open countless underground bars known as speakeasies across the nation, where Americans looking to imbibe could go and do so away from the watchful eyes of the government's "Dry Agents."
Unsurprisingly, speakeasies made a lot of money, and helped establish various crime lords as highly influential figures who would go on to control vast networks of illicit businesses for decades to come.
Of course, illegal drinking wasn't the only thing that defined the 1920s. Fashion, feminism, film, and music all played an equally important role.
Flapper Fashion And The Women's Movement
Public DomainAn illustration of a flapper for a 1922 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
It might be hard to believe that just 100 years ago, women in America had very few rights, but that was the unfortunate reality until August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote. (Sadly, many women of color, immigrant women, and impoverished women would continue to face barriers in elections for years to come.)
Amidst the women's suffrage movement, many women became determined to move the dial even further. However, it still wasn't easy for them to operate in the same playing field as men of the era.
But one thing women did have control over was their fashion. Inspired by women in Europe, American women left behind restrictive corsets and Victorian-era dresses in favor of higher hemlines and looser fabrics that allowed for easier mobility. These women came to be known as flappers.
They cut their hair into the fashionable bob haircut made popular by the likes of Zelda Fitzgerald — the wife of The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald — and popular movie stars like Clara Bow.
Alongside this change in fashion came new dances like the Charleston, which represented the newfound freedom women were experiencing as they could move their bodies in livelier — and more risqué — ways.
These new dances also coincided with the rise of a wild new form of music, one that shied away from convention and structure in favor of a more emotional, raw, and improvisational approach: jazz.
The Jazz Age And The Harlem Renaissance
Wikimedia CommonsThe King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra, pictured in Houston in 1921.
Today, some people might think of jazz as "old music," but a century ago, it was a revolutionary new type of music that came to define the time period.
With roots in the Black American communities of New Orleans, jazz soon rose in popularity across the entire United States thanks to its upbeat, energizing, and dynamic tempo. One place where the popularity of jazz exploded was Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance.
Although jazz was being pioneered by Black artists, white audiences were also drawn to it. Jazz bands were performing this new music in speakeasies across the country, and dances emerged to suit the new songs.
One of the most famous Harlem speakeasies of the time was the Cotton Club, which inspired countless other jazz clubs like it.
However, Cotton Club had a troubling reputation for racism and segregation, which led to Black Harlemites flocking to clubs where they would be welcomed, like Savoy Ballroom, Lenox Club, and the Renaissance Ballroom.
The Great Depression Marks The End Of An Era
National Archives and Records Administration; Ryan StennesUnemployed men line up outside a Chicago soup kitchen owned by Al Capone during the Great Depression.
The idea of the Roaring Twenties came to a sudden, devastating halt on October 24, 1929 — a day now known as "Black Thursday."
All throughout the Jazz Age, banks had been unregulated and loaned money recklessly. Meanwhile, ordinary people had become more interested in investments and buying and selling shares (often ignoring risks along the way). Eventually, many shares became extremely overvalued.
Amidst overinflated shares, growing bank loans, and an overheated economy, a record 12.9 million shares were traded on Black Thursday. The stock market would soon crash, causing the Great Depression, which led millions of Americans to become unemployed.
Although the government considered federal intervention so that aid could be directly sent to American citizens, President Herbert Hoover decided not to proceed. Thus, many Americans blamed him for the worsening Depression, which soon left 15 million people looking for work.
At the same time, shanty towns known as Hoovervilles started cropping up across America, as people tried to get by any way they could.
Things would eventually improve, of course, but the Great Depression wouldn't officially come to an end until 1939 — a full decade after it began.
After this eye-opening look into life in the 1920s, check out our gallery of 44 colorized century-old New York City photos. Or, look through our gallery of 99 colorized photos from history's most iconic moments.
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