Photographs are a powerful historical tool that gives you a window into the past. Unfortunately, color photography didn't become widespread until the '60s and '70s, leaving a crucial element missing from any old photo of our colorful world. But modern techniques allow us to give color back to those black and white photos, and share them on the internet. Here are 20 colorized historical photos you probably haven't seen before. 

One photo shows Margaret Hamilton in 1969, "standing next to listings of the software she and her MIT team produced for the Apollo project." Hamilton was a pioneer software engineer and computer programmer, with a background in abstract mathematics. She wrote software that helped meteorologists predict the weather, and the U.S. Air Force detect unfriendly aircraft. This colorized photo shows the pride in her eyes for her completed work. She is still alive at the age of 87. 

Maryse Hilsz is another pioneering woman on this list. A French pilot, she specialized in high-altitude and endurance flights and flew for the French resistance during World War II. Unfortunately, she was killed in a crash in 1946. Check out those photos, and 18 more in this gallery of colorized history.