Friday, April 1, 2016

Friday Fun: Video Windows into the Past

I have to admit, I don't get on YouTube that often but I think that's going to change. I've known for some time that there are a bunch of old railroad videos on there, including the all-time classic New Haven RR movie "A Great Railroad at Work" and this amazing footage on the New Haven't bike train.

Recently, though, I've discovered how much there is that shows you the texture of life from the past. These videos can be excellent time machines for really getting into the culture and texture of your chosen era.

Case in point - this one titled (perfectly enough) "Connecticut, 1947" (why did it never occur to me before to search that simple term?!). And it's in color! Perfect for modeling...


But I can't even claim to have been smart enough to search for videos from my chose locale and era. I discovered the video above when watching the video below, which I also didn't find myself but which was forwarded to me during my day job as an example of how much industry and how many jobs have left Connecticut. If you want to take a trip back in time to Connecticut during the early 1960s (and especially if you want to see how many household names were - and continue to be - located here), click below. There are a lot of great aerial views (notice how few trees there are!) and - Bonus! there's New Haven RR footage about half-way through...


I don't know about you, but I'm going to be exploring YouTube a lot more. Who knows - maybe I'll be able to find some obscure video of buildings I've never been able to find a picture of. That would be a real boon to my prototype research. Could be very helpful for you too - or at the very least, a nice way to do a little time traveling!

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