On D-Day Anniversary, Rare Color Photos

History books tend to suggest that the world was black-and-white before 1950. Photos by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans paint a stark picture of the Depression. Famed war photographer Robert Capa almost single-handedly forged the monochrome mental imagery of the D-Day landings at Normandy.

But, although it was expensive and somewhat rare, color photography did exist at the time.

One set of 1930s- and '40s-era color transparencies from various photographers owned by the Library of Congress has gone viral around the Web. And, today being the anniversary of the landings at D-Day, Life has published a set of photos along the same surprising lines: In the days before and after the landings at Normandy, photographer Frank Scherschel captured scenes around France in color. See more on Life's website.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.