color photographs of a black and white world.

This dialogue is taken from a Calvin & Hobbes strip between Calvin and his dad. Of all the C&H strips I've read, this is the one that struck me the most.

C: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?

D: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It's just the WORLD was black and white then.

C: Really?

D: Yep. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

C: That's really weird.

D: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

C: But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?

D: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.

C: But... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?

D: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the '30s.

C: So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?

D: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?