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Fake History Hunter

28 Feb, 102 tweets, 36 min read

Myheritage.com has created some sort of animate your old photos application and I'm of course using it to feed my history addiction.
I apologise in advance to all the ancestors I'm about to offend.

Very fake history.

I'm sorry Queenie.

Oh... no oh no... sorry Shakespeare.

This one is pretty good.
Portrait by Hans Memling.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_…

NOOOO NOOOOO!
What have I done?
I'm going to hell for this.
She will haunt me in my nightmares.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with…

Yep, I'm going to hell, for sure.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depiction…

HAHAHAHHA
Sorry poor chap being stabbed in the head.

Henry VIII by the amazing Holbein.
He looks a bit guilty.

Portrait of Christina of Denmark, c. 1538, by Holbein

Queen Victoria

I love this one.
Neanderthal child sculpture made by the Kennis brothers.

Cheddar man!
Also based on Kennis Brothers sculpture.

Napoleon!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon#…

Adelasius Ebalchus lived in northern Switzerland 1,300 years ago. He was in his late teens or early twenties when he died.
Sculpture by Oscar Nilsson.

Patcham Woman was a resident of Roman Britain, and her burial may be a 1,700-year-old crime scene, she was buried in a deep pit with a nail driven deep into the back of her skull.

Sculpture by Oscar Nilsson.

Some of these results are weird, some funny, some strange, some impressive, all fascinating.
Of course this is just a little toy, don't put too much value in it.
But still, when I saw a photo of my gran come back to life, I cried.

I can't stop.
18 year old farmer who died in Scottish Highlands 3,700 years ago.

William of Orange.

Stone Age boy from Italy, reconstruction by Élisabeth Daynès

Reconstruction of an early 17th century skull found at James Fort, Virginia... which showed signs of cannibalism...

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Picasso.

Vincent van Gogh.

Stained glass window Richard III coming to live... I've seen this in a movie, young Sherlock Holmes or something ;)

Another Richard III

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady…

Rock me Amadeus.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_…

Kafka.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kaf…

Painted mummy cover of a young boy, identified by inscription as Eutyches, dating to the Roman Period, 2nd century A.D., made of encaustic on wood. On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Funeral portrait, man with beard. 40 x 20 cm. Encaustic painting on wood, Fayoum, Egypt. Part of the Myers Collection, Eton College, Windsor, England.

Mummy Portrait of a Woman (Romano-Egyptian, Ankyronpolis, AD 100-110). "Isidora" is inscribed in Greek on the left side of the wrappings.

Jones James Hargreaves, mugshot, arrested for being a beggar.

Bertha Boronda.
Charged with "mayhem" for slicing off her husband's you-know-what with a straight razor.
San Jose, California.
1908.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Bo…

Al Capone, 1930s mugshot.

Gordon Stewart Northcott, child murderer, 1920s.

Mug shot of Vera Crichton, 21 February 1924, probably Central Police Station, Sydney.
Charged with "conspiring together to procure a miscarriage" on a third woman.

Mug shot of William Munro, 17 September 1924, Central Police Station, Sydney.
Charged, along with Harris Hunter, with receiving stolen goods to the value of 536 pounds 4 shillings and 1 penny, the property of Snow's department store.

Lee Harvey Oswald, mugshot.

John Wilkes Booth

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Ant…

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer (born Hobley; 1836 – 10 June 1896) was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Dy…

May 1910. St. Louis, Missouri. "Boy named Gurley. An eight year old newsie. 18th & Washington Streets."
Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

January 1909. "A little spinner in Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The overseer admitted she was regularly employed." Lewis Wickes Hine.

Lewis Hine 'Young Russian Jewess, Ellis Island, New York' 1905

13 year old boy soldier captured by United States Army in Martinszell Waltenhofen, 1945.

Man who worked at a circus, Germany, 1930s.
getty.edu/art/collection…

Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan, GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944), also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British spy in World War II who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inay…

Michelangelo’s David

A 1903 engraving of Joan of Arc by Albert Lynch featured in the Figaro Illustre magazine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_A…

Emily Dickinson.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dic…

Jane Austen.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Aust…

Composite picture of D.B. Cooper.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Coo…

Joe Biden, 1960s.

Young Paul McCartney

Django Reinhardt, the best guitar player ever.

Clown, 1920s.
Sorry.

Ella Fitzgerald, 1940.

Billie Holiday.

Young Audrey Hepburn.

Mona Lisa.

You asked for it.
They made me.

independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

American Gothic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_…

The Garden of Earthly Delights, right inner wing, detail.
Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450 –1516).

Jewess with Oranges (Polish: Żydówka z pomarańczami, Pomarańczarka, Przekupka z Pomarańczami) is an 1880-1881 oil painting on canvas by the Polish artist Aleksander Gierymski.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewess_wi…

Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (/ˌnɛfərˈtiːti/[3]) (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti

Frida Kahlo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kah…

Edith Piaf, 1936.

Laughing Cavalier
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_…

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bar_at_…

John Fitzalan’s cadaver effigy (c.1435-45). Limestone, length 181 cm, Arundel, Fitzalan Chapel

Baruch Spinoza
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Sp…

John Dillinger
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dill…

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt

After a long night of well deserved sleep... oh wait... my last tweet was 4 hours ago?
Oh dear...

Better not spend an entire day doing more of these bringing history back to live portrait thingies... well maybe just a few more...

The Yde girl.
A bog body found in the Stijfveen peat bog near the village of Yde, Netherlands.
She died between 54 BC and 128 AD at an approximate age of 16 years.[
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yde_Girl

Maximilien Robespierre, bust by Claude-André Deseine. Terra cotta, 1791.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilie…

Lord Byron by Henry Pierce Bone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shel…

Little intermission to freak you out a bit more.
This person does not exist, at all.
AI created portrait (via thispersondoesnotexist.com) brought to life with AI via myheritage.
You could be having a video chat with someone who in reality is someone completely different.

On a positive note, right now this is all a bit weird, not quite realistic, but fun.
Soon we can recreate historical figures with superb accuracy and authenticity.
Scary but imagine the power of using VR and AI to actually "really" experience historical events.

Yes people will bring historical figures "back to life" and do horrible things with that power.
But one day I can also just sit in a corner of the room my mother grew up in while granny who I never met just hums as she knits by the fireplace.

There are a LOT of negative and scary sides to this technique but they also have amazingly powerful educational possibilities.
Soon kids will not just learn about important historical figures, they'll be able to visit them at home and chat with them.

Antiochus III the Great
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus…

Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_…

Franklin D. Roosevelt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_…

Unidentified allied soldier, portrait taken in 1945 in the Netherlands.
One of the liberators we owe our lives and freedom to.

This is Cornelis Dirk van Vliet, Danish vice consul who risked his life to drive his car into the Japanese concentration camp my grandmother was in, slapped a guard and informed the commander the war was over.
My grandmother was very sick, I may owe this man my existence.

And yes, I've done this with pictures of relatives, including my grandmother who I never met but have missed immensely in my life.
But seeing her move was way too much of an emotional and personal experience to share with the world.

Mugshot of the man who murdered my great-aunt in the 1930s.
I knew about the infamous case long before I realised I was related to the victim.
Yes, that will be a future thread.

Name: Jane Thompson AKA Gordon
Arrested for: Thief
Arrested at: North Shields Police Station
Arrested on: 13th July 1904
Tyne and Wear Archives ref: DX1388-1-35-Jane Thompson AKA Gordon

Edmond Navratil, one of the Titanic orphans.
When the marriage of his parents became problematic his dad kidnapped him and his brother and tried to go to America, but the Titanic sank and their father drowned.
They were finally identified and reunited with their mother.

Johannes Brahms.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_…

Are sparks flying?
Nikola Tesla.
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Te…

James Scullion was sentenced to 14 days hard labor at Newcastle City Gaol for stealing clothes. After this he was sent to Market Weighton Reformatory School for three years. Age (on discharge): 13.

Credit: Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Lewis Powell (aka Lewis Payne), one of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. This photograph has background of dark metal, and was presumably taken on the monitors, U.S.S. Montauk and Saugus, where the conspirators were for a time confined.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson, Vc, Dso and Bar, Dfc and Bar, Commander of 617 Squadron (dambusters) at Scampton, Lincolnshire, 22 July 1943

Walt Disney during his time as an ambulance driver in WW1.

Immigrants from the West Indies at Victoria Station in London, 1956. Published in Picture Post, 8405 Vol 71, 9 June 1956. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Windrush Generation.