New York City in 1911 | Rare Footage Brought to Life in Stunning 4K Color

Travel back to 1911 and experience New York City like never before — in color and 60 fps.

This beautifully restored and colorized footage captures a rare glimpse of everyday life in Manhattan more than a century ago. Originally filmed by a team of cameramen from the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern, the documentary was part of a global travelogue project that also visited Paris, Venice, Monte Carlo and Niagara Falls.

This reel — the only one from the series preserved in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection — offers a mesmerizing window into the streets, sights and people of pre-WWI New York.


📍 Featured locations include:

– New York Harbor
– Battery Park and the John Ericsson statue
– The elevated railways at Bowery and Worth Streets
– Broadway (including Grace Church and Mark Cross)
– The Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue
– Madison Avenue

Unlike modern, fast-paced depictions of NYC, this film captures a quieter, almost pastoral city. Horse-drawn carriages share the roads with early automobiles. Pedestrians stroll slowly. A young girl rides in the front seat of a convertible limousine — her timeless expression of boredom still relatable over 100 years later.

🎨 Restoration process:

– Cleaned
– Upscaled to 4K
– Frame-interpolated to 60 fps
– Colorized using state-of-the-art AI technology

👉 Original B&W Source: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) / WikiCommons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Disclaimer: The colors shown in this video are not historically accurate, but are based on artistic interpretation and available references. They are intended to evoke the era, not replicate it exactly.


📬 If you recognize people or locations in the footage, feel free to leave a comment and share your knowledge.

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