TIRANA, Oct. 13 – Digital colorization has shown off 100-year-old portraits of New York immigrants in incredible outfits, including an Albanian soldier arriving at Ellis Island, New York in 1910 to start a new life just a couple of years before Albania announced its independence.
The photographs were taken between 1906 and 1914 by amateur photographer Augustus Francis Sherman, the chief registry clerk at Ellis Island, then the country’s busiest immigration station and show portraits of immigrants wearing national dresses of the country of their origin, including military uniforms from Albania, bonnets from the Netherlands, and clothing of Sà¡mi people from the Arctic regions, reports Matthew Tucker, the BuzzFeed Picture Editor, UK.
“Albanian Soldier” , c. 1910
“The truncated brimless felt cap is known as a qeleshe, whose shape was largely determined by region and moulded to one’s head. The vest, known as a jelek or xhamadan, was decorated with embroidered braids of silk or cotton; its colour and decoration denoted the region where the wearer was from and their social rank. Most likely this soldier is from the northeastern regions of Albania, judging by the cut and colour of his outfit.” – Dynamichrome Augustus Francis Sherman / New York Public Library / Dynamichrome / Via digitalcollections.nypl.org
