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50 Must-See Historical Images That May Make You Want To Open A History Book Once Again
“A picture is worth a thousand words”—a phrase most of us have heard before. And for a reason. Photographs can capture loads of information in just a split second and immortalize it for years to come. By freezing moments, photographers enable us to travel to places and times we’ve never witnessed ourselves. They allow us to see the world exactly as it was, whether it was yesterday or a hundred years ago.
The Instagram account called Historical Pix boasts a beautiful collection of pictures from various points in time. Their uploads cover a multitude of topics, from war to technology, from sport to fashion; you name it, it’s there. As they themselves describe, “It's just history. The good, the bad, and the ugly.”
We have gathered some of the most impressive photographs shared by the account. Scroll down for the images and feel free to browse this list of historical pics or this one, if you’d like to see more.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
1945. 10-Year-Old Stoic Japanese Boy Standing At Attention Having Brought His Dead Younger Brother To A Cremation Pyre, Nagasaki
Years Later, Joe O’donnell, The American Photojournalist Who Took This Photo, Spoke To A Japanese Interviewer About This Photograph: “I Saw A Boy About Ten Years Old Walking By. He Was Carrying A Baby On His Back. In Those Days In Japan, We Often Saw Children Playing With Their Little Brothers Or Sisters On Their Backs, But This Boy Was Clearly Different. I Could See That He Had Come To This Place For A Serious Reason. He Was Wearing No Shoes. His Face Was Hard. The Little Head Was Tipped Back As If The Baby Were Fast Asleep. The Boy Stood There For Five Or Ten Minutes. The Men In White Masks Walked Over To Him And Quietly Began To Take Off The Rope That Was Holding The Baby. That Is When I Saw That The Baby Was Already Dead. The Men Held The Body By The Hands And Feet And Placed It On The Fire. The Boy Stood There Straight Without Moving, Watching The Flames. He Was Biting His Lower Lip So Hard That It Shone With Blood. The Flame Burned Low Like The Sun Going Down. The Boy Turned Around And Walked Silently Away.”
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
Oh my. This may be....I don't know if the photo or the explanation is sadder. So, so sad.
RELATED:
#2
1961. East German Soldier Ignores Orders To Let No One Pass By Helping A Young Boy Cross The Newly Built Berlin Wall, To Reunite With His Family
#3
Anna Coleman Ladd Was An American Sculptor Who Is Best Known For Her Work Creating Prosthetic Masks For Soldiers Who Were Disfigured During World War I
Ladd, Who Was Born In 1878 And Died In 1939, Worked With A Team Of Assistants At The American Red Cross In Paris To Create The Masks, Which Were Made Of Copper And Other Materials And Were Designed To Be Worn Over The Soldiers' Faces In Order To Restore Some Of Their Appearance And Self-Confidence. The Masks Were Highly Realistic And Were Often Painted To Match The Soldiers' Skin Tones. Ladd's Work Was Praised For Its Artistic And Technical Skill, As Well As For Its Humanitarian Purpose
#4
The Kiss Of Life. 1967
Utility Lineman Jimmy D. Thompson Giving Mouth-To-Mouth Resuscitation To Fellow Worker Randall G. Champion, After Champion Was Knocked Unconscious By An Electric Shock. Because Of Thompson's Intervention, Champion Survived And Lived Until 2002. Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photograph By Rocco Morabito
#5
1959. A Young French Girl Poses With Glee As She Cradles Her Cat
Shyla Bouche 3 years ago
When I was about this child's age, I was upset and crying. Mom asked me what was wrong. I told her that every time we posed for a picture with a pet, my brother got to hold it. My mom said I was right, and to go get the kitten. She stopped whatever it was she was doing to listen to me when my feelings were hurt, and to fix the problem. In my pictures with that kitten, my face looked just like this kid's.
#6
1976. Soviet Explorer, Nikolai Machulyak, Feeding A Polar Bear And Her Cubs With Condensed Milk And Meat, Near Cape Schmidt Off The Coast Of The Chukchi Sea
#7
1954. Cats Stand Up On Their Hind Legs To Catch Squirts Of Milk During Milking At A Dairy Farm. Photo By Nat Farbman
#8
Beatles Fans In 1964 And 2013. Ringo Starr Took The Top Photo From Car Window, After The High School Friends Skipped School To See The Beatles During Their First Trip To The Us In 1964
#9
C. 1910. Native American Blackfoot Warriors At Glacier National Park, On The Shore Of St. Mary Lake, Montana. Photo By Roland W. Reed
#10
Members Of The Red Warriors – A French Youth Anti-Fascist Street Gang That Used Violent Force To Combat The Surge Of Neo-Nazi Violence From France In The Mid To Late 1980s
The Red Warriors Often Acted As Security For Punk Shows And Left-Wing Activist Groups, Who Were Often Targeted With Violence By White Power Skinheads. Over Time, The Red Warriors, And Other Youth Gangs With Similar Goals, Became Well-Known In France For Their Confrontational Methods For Resisting Fascists
#11
Graffiti On Troops’ Helmets During The Vietnam War
#12
1839. The Oldest Known Photographic Portrait Of A Human In The USA, Taken As Self-Image By Photography Pioneer Robert Cornelius. He Had To Remain Motionless For 10 To 15 Minutes To Capture The Photograph
#13
Eruption Of Mount St. Helens, 1980, By Richard Lasher
#14
C. 1910. Child Miners Photographed By Lewis Hine. Hine’s Photographs Were Instrumental In Bringing About The Passage Of The First Child Labor Laws In The United States
#15
C. 1929. A Little Girl Hands Lilies To A Police Officer On Duty At The Porte Saint-Denis In Paris
#16
1975. John Cleese On The Set Of Monty Python And The Holy Grail
ISeeWendiGo 3 years ago
"I unplug my nose in your general direction, sons-of-a-windowdresser! So, you think you could outclever us French folk with your silly knees bent running about and dancing behavior. I’ll wave my private parts at your aunties! You cheesy load of secondhand electric donkey bottom biters!"
#17
Great Blizzard Of 1888, New York City
Fester Sixonesixonethree 3 years ago
My great uncle perished in that blizzard in Philadelphia. Poor dude froze to death.
#18
1967. Kangaroo Hits A Photographer For Trying To Photograph Him, England. Photo By Voller Ernst
Wombat1985 3 years ago
The name of the photographer does not sound correct. "Voller Ernst" would be the equivalent of "dead serious" in German. Or am I missing something?
#19
1945. Boys Hanging On A Full Train After The Liberation Of Holland. Photography By Menno Huizinga
LoneTomato 3 years ago
This photograph is incredible. I feel like you could build an entire novel or film over this one shot alone
#20
September 1945. Australian Soldiers Catch Up On News From Home After Their Release From Japanese Captivity In Singapore
Sue from England 3 years ago (edited)
My dad only knew his father for about 5 years, he and his twin sister and my grandmother were evacuated just before the Japanese invaded Singaore. My grandmother was given the choice of two boats to leave on, the first going to Australia (closer) the second to England (she was from Scotland). She chose the second. The first one got bombed at sea, all souls lost. Dad and his family made it back home. My grandfather wasn't so lucky. He was a sergeant in the Royal Coastal Artillery and taken prisoner in Singapore after his family left. Despite two attempts to escape, he failed and was executed by the Japanese five days before the Surrender. 5 days made the difference between me possibly meeting him one day and not, and him being reunited with his family.
#21
1954. A Young Boy Carrying Two Bottles Of Wine Under His Arms, Rue Mouffetard, Paris. Photo By Henri Cartier-Bresson
#22
1920s. Traditional Rwandan Hairstyle Of Amasunzu
Amasunzu Hairstyle Is Traditionally Worn By Rwandan Men And Unmarried Women, With The Hair Styled Into Crests, Often Decorated With Beads And Cowrie Shells. It Is Frequently Described As Crescent-Shaped. The Style Is Associated With The Rwandan People's Cultural Identity And Has Been Passed Down Through Generations
#23
1911. The Wreck Of The Arden Craig Off The Isles Of Scilly, West Of Cornwall. Photo By Francis James Mortimer
#24
Grand Central Terminal In New York City, C. 1954
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 3 years ago
One of the few remaining examples of classic Art Deco still standing. Those windows look exactly the same now as they did then. There was a time in the 70s and 80s when real estate developers were talking about tearing it down. It's now a national historic landmark.
#25
1894. Archaeologists And Workers Pose In Front Of The Near-Perfectly Preserved And Still-Upright Statue Of Antinous, Unearthed Near The Temple Of Apollo In The Sanctuary At Delphi, Greece
#26
1931. German Photographer Willi Ruge Took This Photograph Seconds Before Landing During His Seven-Minute Parachute Jump From An Airplane Over Berlin
#27
1909, Wakefield, Massachusetts. Young Members Of The Payro Family Being “Photographed” By Their Cat. Photo By Joseph C. Payro
#28
C. 1910. Portraits Of Immigrants At Ellis Island, New York, By Augustus F. Sherman
#29
1961. Audition For A Black Cat Role In A Low-Budget Hollywood Horror Movie
More Than 150 Cats Showed Up For The Audition. The Lead Role Was Filled By A Professionally Trained Black Cat. Additionally, Seven More Cats Were Chosen For Publicity Based On How “Mean” The Look In Their Eyes Was. Photography By Ralph Crane
#30
Listening To The Birds, 1885, By John Dumont
#31
C. 1930s. A Turkish Fisherman Returns With His Booty
#32
Powerhouse Mechanic, 1924, By Lewis Hine
#33
1930s. A Chinese Buddhist Monk Walking On A Chain Bridge At Jiangyou Figure Hill Temple In China
#34
1889. A Blind Man Carrying A Paralyzed Man With Dwarfism In Damascus, Syria. Photo By Italian Photographer Tancrède Dumas
#35
Queen Elizabeth II (1926 - 2022)
#36
1954. Marilyn Monroe On Stage Performing For Thousands Of American Troops In Korea
#37
1928. A War Veteran Sells Matches On The Street In Canterbury, Kent, England. Photo By Clifton R. Adams
#38
9/11
#39
C. 1911. Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Cuernavaca, Mexico
#40
Hong Kong, 1950s-60s By Fan Ho
#41
C. 1917. Frozen Fountain, Washington Boulevard, Detroit
#42
1910. Paris Motor Show At The Grand Palais In Paris
#43
1936. The New York Central Railroad Streamliner 'Mercury' Passes Through Syracuse City Hall
#44
C. 1860s. Studio Portraits Of Samurai Warriors
#45
June 6, 1944. D-Day In Color
#46
1932. Sailing Ship S.v. Penang In Millwall Docks, London, Towers Above The Poverty Of The Surrounding Housing
LoneTomato 3 years ago
Love seeing the faces of the lady and the couple kids looking right at the camera
#47
1930. Worker Smoking Cigarette And Carrying Bag Across Shoulders Pauses In The Middle Of Steel Beam High Above City Streets, During Construction Of The Manhattan Company Building At 40 Wall Street, New York City. Photo By Arthur Gerlach
Gabrielle braswell she/they 3 years ago
Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
#48
Golden Gate Bridge Under Construction, C. 1935
#49
1972. A Burning Wall Crumbles Down, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photo By A. Abbas
#50
1970s. Girl Licking Ice Cream And Playing With The Tip Of The Gun’s Bayonet To Elicit A Reaction From A Royal Guard Outside Stockholm Palace, Stockholm, Sweden
#51
C. 1970s. A Math Teacher At Dana Hills High School In Southern California Explaining The Physics Of Surfing
#52
September 11, 2001
#53
1970s. Female Ira Fighter In West Belfast With An Ar18 Assault Rifle. Photo By Colman Doyle
#54
1938. Coal Miner's Child Using A Hole In The Door To Enter A Bedroom With A Smoking Pipe In One Hand And A Gun In The Other In Bertha Hill, West Virginia. Photo By Marion Post Wolcott
#55
1962. Workmen Trim The 11-Meters High Yew Hedge, Encircling Oakley Hall In Cirencester, England. The Hedge Was Planted In 1720 By The First Earl Of Bathurst
#56
1939, Oregon. An Unemployed Lumber Worker With His Wife. Photo By Dorothea Lange
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
They are living in a tent. Poor, as poor can be. But beautiful, both.
#57
Original Caption: “School Leaver Bryn Owen Aged 17 With His Vespa Scooter, Which Has 34 Mirrors And 81 Lights, All Bought With His Pocket Money. Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, 1983.”
#58
C. 1911. Telephone Pole In Pratt, Kansas
#59
The 2800 Years Old Kiss. Estimated To Be Buried Since 800 Bc, These Human Skeletons, Seemingly In An Embrace, Were Unearthed In 1972 At The Teppe Hasanlu Archaeological Site In Iran
#60
C. 1865. Samurai, Yokohama, By Felice Beato
#61
1888. Mullen's Alley, Cherry Hill, New York By Jacob Riis
#62
1941. An Unauthorized Photo Of Joseph Stalin, Taken Inside The Kremlin At The Very Moment He Was Informed That The Germans Were About To Take Kiev, Beginning Their Invasion Of The Soviet Union
The Photographer Was Ordered To Destroy This Photograph But He Secretly Defied These Orders And Instead Saved It
Neuropotathy 3 years ago
What's wrong, Soso Djugashvili? It's just your friend and ally Adolf coming to see you! You congratulated him on annexing lands, you divided Poland together. He took Kiev and Minsk in weeks because you sent the most professional and popular soviet generals to Gulag or to grave. Cheer up suka!
#63
C. 1918. Inside A German Ub-110 Submarine
Daniel Atkins 3 years ago
Turn that valve no the other no the other one now you shut off the water to the bathroom. Wait I’ll come over there and do it.
#64
First Class Of Swissair In The 1960s
#65
1957. A Teen Girl At An Elvis Presley Concert At The Philadelphia Arena In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#66
1966. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach And Lee Van Cleef On Location For The Climactic Finale At Sad Hill Cemetery During The Filming Of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
pocwaddler 3 years ago
Saw a really interesting documentary about the 50th anniversary of the filming. The people in the village nearby recreated the cemetery and held a festival to mark the anniversary.
#67
1927. U.S. Navy's Airship Los Angeles (Zr-3) In A Near-Vertical Position, After A Turbulent Wind From The Atlantic Flipped The 658-Foot Airship On Its Nose, While She Was Moored At The High Mast At Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey
The Ship Suffered Only Slight Damage And Was Able To Fly The Next Day. There Were No Serious Injuries To The Crew
#68
C. 1910s. Carrier Pigeons Wearing Miniature Camera, Invented By German Inventor Julius Neubronner, And Aerial Photographs Captured By These Pigeon Cameras
#69
1920s. Racetrack On The Rooftop Of Fiat’s Lingotto Factory In Turin, Italy
#70
1923. Pierre Labric Rides His Bicycle Down The Stairs Of The Eiffel Tower. He Won A Bet, But Was Arrested By The Police
#71
1970s-80s. Photos Of New York City’s Subway System, From Swiss Photographer Willy Spiller’s Collection Hell On Wheels
#72
Kearny Street, San Francisco, 1952, By Fred Lyon
#73
Vivian Maier Was A Full-Time Nanny Who Worked For Different Families In The 1950s And 1960s, Mainly In Chicago And New York, But She Also Happened To Be A Photographer By Hobby
She Took More Than 150,000 Photographs During Her Lifetime, Primarily Of The People And Architecture Of Chicago, New York City, And Los Angeles, But She Kept Those Photographs To Herself. Her Work Was Only Discovered Because She Fell Behind On Payments For Storage Lockers She Rented In A Chicago Warehouse, Which Were Crammed With Negatives, Boxes Of Slides And More Than 1,000 Rolls Of Unprocessed Film. When These Possessions Were Sold Off At Auction In 2007, John Maloof, A Real-Estate Agent, Bought Most Of It For Less Than $400 And Began Posting Her Photographs Online. These Photos Went Viral And Would Ultimately Make Maier Famous. But The Fame Came Too Late For Maier To Appreciate: She Died In 2009, Aged 83, Penniless And Alone. “I’m The Mystery Woman” Vivian Maier Once Told The Children In Her Care
#74
1945. The Final Moments Of A Japanese Dive Bomber, After Being Hit By Anti-Aircraft Fire From The Uss Hornet
#75
1983. Dr. Fukushi Katsunari With A Wet Specimen From The Preserved Japanese Skin Tattoo Collection At Medical Pathology Museum Of Tokyo University
Started By His Father, Dr. Fukushi Masaichi, Pathologist And Emeritus Professor Of Nippon Medical School In Tokyo, Who Founded The World's Only Collection Of Tattoos Taken From The Dead. In 1926, Dr. Fukushi Masaichi Initially Became Interested In Tattoos When He Noticed That Skin Lesions Caused By Syphilis Stopped Where Tattoos Started. However, During His Research He Became More Fascinated By Tattoo Art. Dr. Fukushi Often Helped Fund Tattoos For People Who Couldn't Afford Them – In Return For The Ownership Rights After Death. His Collection Included About 2,000 Tattooed Skins And 3,000 Photographs, Which Were Mostly Lost In 1945, During World War II. Dr. Fukushi Masaichi And His Son Dr. Fukushi Katsunari Are Known In Japan As "Irezumi Hakase" (Approximately: "Dr. Tattoo")
#76
1940s. New Year's Hangovers, New York
#77
1893. Princeton University Students After The Annual Freshman-Sophomore Snowball Fight. It Was Common For Students To Pack Rocks Inside Their Snowballs
#78
Early 1900s. Workers Pose With Anchor Chains Of Rms Mauretania
MaggieMay85 3 years ago
They are some big guys but this makes them look like the size of mice.
#79
1958. Jimmy Armstrong Aka The Dwarf Clown At Clyde Beatty Circus In Palisades, New Jersey. From Photographer Bruce Davidson’s Series ‘Circus’
“He Was Standing Alone Outside The Tent Smoking A Cigarette,” Davidson Upon Seeing Armstrong For The First Time. Dressed In A Tux And A Top Hat He Held A Small Bouquet Of Paper Flowers, And “Stood There Pensively In The Privacy Of His Inner Thoughts.” “He Seemed To Know That It Was The Inner Moment I Was Drawn To And Not His Clown Face Or Physical Appearance. We Became Friends, Although We Seldom Spoke To One Another.” “I Found Something In Jimmy That Was More Than Loneliness, It Was A Story About Surviving" - Bruce Davidson
#80
Tourism At Egyptian Pyramids During The Early 20th Century
#81
Horror Movie Villains Behind The Scenes
#82
4th Of July 1950, Santa Monica, California, By Ralph Crane
#83
1993. Behind The Scenes Of Pulp Fiction
#84
1969. Photographs Showing A Nasa-Funded Research Of A Cat Demonstrating Its Natural Ability Of Physically Rotating Its Body In Mid-Air To Right Itself When Falling, And An Astronaut Training To Replicate The Feline Motion To Develop The Ability To Right His Body In Zero Gravity. Photography By Ralph Crane
#85
1985. 18-Year-Old Mike Tyson And His Trainer, Cus D'amato, Before His First Professional Fight Against Hector Mercedes. The Fight Lasted 1 Minute And 47 Seconds, With Tyson Defeating Hector Mercedes Via First-Round Tko. Photo By Ken Regan
#86
1978. Tim Allen’s Mugshot After He Was Arrested At The Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport For Possession Of Over 650 Grams (1.43 Lb) Of Cocaine
He Later Pleaded Guilty To Drug Trafficking Charges And Provided The Names Of Other Dealers In Exchange For A Sentence Of 3 To 7 Years Rather Than A Possible Life Imprisonment. He Was Paroled In 1981, After Serving 2 Years And 4 Months In Prison
Immortal Jellyfish 3 years ago
I'm shocked. He's always seemed so wholesome to me. Of course I had no idea who he was until the 90's, so there is that.
#87
Cornett Boys Smoking By Car, Leatherwood, Kentucky, 1964, By William Gedney
#88
1945. Atomic Bombing Of Nagasaki
#89
1980s. Vintage Band Publicity Photos
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What do you think ?
Annika Kremer 3 years ago
Those were very interesting and although I'm quite interested in history, about half of these were new to me. Thanks! Great content.
Yaprak 3 years ago
The photos are very interesting but there are more than10 repetitive photos. Why do someone would repeat the photos instead of giving numbers less?
Ali H M Salehuddin 3 years ago
BP needs to relook at their mobile apps. On a pc, this looks okay, but viewing this via an android phone shows repeated entries.
Load More Replies... Annika Kremer 3 years ago
Those were very interesting and although I'm quite interested in history, about half of these were new to me. Thanks! Great content.
Yaprak 3 years ago
The photos are very interesting but there are more than10 repetitive photos. Why do someone would repeat the photos instead of giving numbers less?
Ali H M Salehuddin 3 years ago
BP needs to relook at their mobile apps. On a pc, this looks okay, but viewing this via an android phone shows repeated entries.
Load More Replies...
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