50 Historical Photos And Their Intriguing Or Heartbreaking Backstories

This photograph, taken circa 1941 in Helwan, Egypt, is a powerful display of Māori cultural traditions. It shows members of the 28th Maori Battalion, who had fought against German invasion in Greece, performing a haka for the King of Greece.

U.S. troops discovered rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses, and gold fillings after liberating prisoners from the Buchenwald c****************p in April 1945. Pictured are just a few of the thousands of wedding rings the N*zis had seized from prisoners to melt down for gold.

Taken around 1925 in Urga, this photo shows a Tsam masked dance meant to purify the community and scare away evil spirits. Monks performed in heavy robes and sacred masks, while horns, cymbals, and drums provided rhythm. By the 1930s, the tradition was suppressed, making images from this era valuable records.

This 1894 image was first published in April 1895 by the Century Magazine as part of T.C Martin’s article titled, “Tesla’s Oscillator and other Inventions”.Twain frequently visited and volunteered in Nikola Tesla's laboratory in the 1890s, where he famously tested Tesla's mechanical oscillator.

This photograph, taken in 1899 of Banyuls-sur-Mer, shows Romanian scientist Emil Racoviță posing underwater for French pioneer Louis Boutan. Racoviță held a slate that read “Photographie sous-marine,” confirming that the shot was taken below the surface. Boutan’s work is widely regarded as the first underwater portrait and helped launch the era of underwater photography.

Captured in this U.S. National Archives photo from September 16, 1918, are two young women on a delivery route, lugging a huge block of ice around using tongs. Traditionally, this was a job done by men due to its physically demanding nature. However, more women took up the work to assist during World War I.

Roland was a massive 4,000-pound sea elephant who called the Berlin Zoo his home from the late 1920s until the Second World War. In a fascinating display of human-animal interaction, Roland was pictured receiving a snow bath from his handler.

This photo of a monk carefully crossing a chain bridge at Yunyan Si, also known as Cloud Rock Temple, was captured in 1930. The precarious two-chain bridge, with one chain as the narrow footway and the other as the handrail, was one of two daunting routes to the sutra library perched on a cliff.

Shot between 1928 and 1929, the photograph captures Jackie, MGM’s “Leo,” as a cameraman and sound man work beside him in his soundproof booth-sized cage. In the risky and unnervingly intimate setup, handlers often prodded and coaxed roars out of Jackie, close enough for everyone to be in grave danger if he lashed out.

Captured in Nushagak, Alaska, this 1912 photo shows an Eskimo medicine man, also known as an Aglegmiut shaman, with his arm draped over the shoulder of a sick boy. It was captioned "Working to beat the devil" - exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. Despite being forbidden by Christian missionaries, these ceremonial costumes, consisting of masks and outsized hands, were still made and used in the early 1900s by the Aglegmiut people. 

This 1940 photograph captures a gas-attack drill staged at a London hospital. As part of the drill, the nurses at the hospital had to carry babies around in cocoon-like devices called “baby gas respirators” to prepare for possible evacuations due to poison gas raids. Interestingly, the device’s design enclosed the baby’s body apart from their legs, which were left hanging out.

Julia Pastrana was born in 1834 in Mexico. She was a singer and performer with a genetic condition called hypertrichosis terminalis that caused straight black hair to grow all over her face and body. Pastrana also had a rare disease called gingival hyperplasia, which increased the size of her gums. Both were unique conditions to have, with gingival hyperplasia virtually unheard of at that time.

This well-known photograph was taken by Paul Thompson in London, circa 1916. It depicts Florence Priscilla, Lady Norman, a British suffragist and wartime office supervisor, riding an Autoped motor-scooter to work. The scooter was a birthday present from her husband, Sir Henry Norman. Like many other early motorized scooters during the 1910s, it briefly boomed and was marketed to women as convenient city transport.

On the Island of Nias, megaliths were used to honor prominent deceased individuals. Whenever such a stone was erected, a ritual feast was held to allow the deceased to join their ancestors in the afterlife. According to legend, it took 525 people in the village of Bawomataluo three days to raise the stone pictured in 1915.

This 1961 photo was captured during the excavations in Pompeii. Using a technique perfected by Giuseppe Fiorelli, archaeological investigations of the ancient town have recorded over 1000 victims of the 79 AD eruption since 1863, with 103 casts made during the excavation process. Thanks to developments in digital imaging and scientific analysis, other projects have emerged to challenge myths and uncover the truth about the victims.

The children pictured here were known as “breaker boys” because of the work they did at coal breakers. Lewis Wickes Hine shot this photo of them in 1911, while documenting child labor on behalf of the National Child Labor Committee. Often working 10 hours a day and 6 days a week, the boys would pick slate and other impurities from coal with their bare hands. However, by 1920, the use of breaker boys had ended because machinery had improved, and laws had been tightened.

This 1931 photograph of Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa was not taken at a Hopi Mesa, but at Hopi House, part of the Grand Canyon’s El Tovar hotel. This was a common scene staged for tourists. Not even the feathered headdress and pipe given to Einstein were part of Hopi culture. Instead, they belonged to Plains Indian tribes.

Shot in 1948, this image shows a Hawaiian fisherman holding a torch made from kukui nuts. Passed down from generation to generation, the traditional practice, known as torch fishing, involved illuminating shallow waters to attract octopi and rock fish for spearing.