Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
50 Interesting Historical Photos That Might Change Your Perspective On Things (New Pics)
Interview
Nowadays, we can't even imagine our lives without photos. Many of us tend to capture each detail of our lives, from special occasions to the most ordinary moments. Cameras are used by all age groups, starting from little children who are curious about all the gadgets around them, through youth, adults, and finally, elderly people who want to keep up with technology and have the will to learn new things.
However, it wasn't always this easy in the past, and initially, cameras were available only to a very narrow group of people. Nevertheless, we can't deny that this was a wonderful invention, providing us with limited sources of information that offer a glimpse into how life looked in the past. The Facebook page 'Old Photos' curates a great collection of fascinating photographs, and as it states: "This page is to remember history by sharing historic photos and videos from around the world."
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Three Women In Marshall, Texas, 1899
Rizzo 2 years ago
Clean white clothes without the nth generation of washing powder with the whiter-than-white formula. A miracle. ;)
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
And, with muddy, horse-manure laden streets. With Courage, Press on.
Load More Replies...
araT sdrawkcaB 2 years ago (edited)
Absolutely stunning, but the pain i’m feeling looking at those corseted waists…
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
And the heat with the sleeves, and long skirts and hats. Looks so uncomfortable. Why did we ever do this to ourselves?
Load More Replies...
Lex <3 (they/them) 2 years ago
Obviously, this was before global warming turned the weather to 104838 degrees :’(
Linda Riebel 2 years ago
God, I'm glad we don't dress like that any more. (comment made during heat wave).
RELATED:
#2
A Boy And His Peddle Car, 1930s
Lee En 2 years ago
Look closer, he's wearing shoes that stop at the ankle, and spatz( an overshoe).
Load More Replies...
dan martyr 2 years ago
The boots, the hand in pocket, the ‘I see vast horizons man’ look. Dude.
#3
A Stylish Family Outing, 1946
Bored Panda reached out to Krzysztof Kucharczyk, a professional photographer, and an old photos enthusiast. Apart from his professional work, Krzysztof is also an admin of an Instagram account dedicated to historical images. We wanted to gather more information about his passion and details about curating his profile. First, we asked what initially drew him to the world of old photography. Kucharczyk shared with us: “Old photos are magical. Old photographs are windows to the old world. I've always wondered about their history. I started collecting old photos to save their history from oblivion. Discovering the story of each photo is a journey into the unknown, a journey to another world, a journey to a parallel world.”
#4
Two Sisters, Florence And Susie Friermuth Arrested For Moonshining During The Prohibition, 1921
Jp@nda 2 years ago
It was illegally distilling alcohol using home made distillers, either making whiskey or vodka, normally hidden out in the woods somewhere
Load More Replies...
#5
Little Girl And Her Kitty, Harlem, NY, 1949
Tiffany Denchfield 2 years ago
Seriously. That m**o is scene stealer with his effortless swagger. Soo cute!
Load More Replies...
#6
Two Gentleman From The Early 1900s
David H 2 years ago
one thing I love about these old pics is people knew to dress with class.
Load More Replies...
Olivia Carr 2 years ago
How could humankind derail from THIS to saggy pants?! I am disappointed...
We were wondering what criteria Krzysztof uses to determine the value and significance of a vintage photograph. He said: “I am not guided by technical values. I appreciate photos that keep me lingering longer. I love photos that tell a story. You find a photo, you look at it, and you know you have to save it.”
#7
Dutch Boy With A Pillow Strapped On His Backside To Soften The Falling On Ice While Skating, 1933
Ropre 2 years ago
That's why I hate ice skating. I'm 5'10" and then when you add a few inches because of the skates, I have a LONG way to fall......lol
Load More Replies...
CHRIS DOMRES 2 years ago
He does not appear to be enjoying himself. Looks like I did the first and last time I tried ice skating.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 2 years ago
But did you have a pillow tied to your butt?
Load More Replies...
Catherine Maven 2 years ago
My mother did that!! AND she brought out the GOOD dining chairs for us to slide along in front of us while we were learning to skate!!
Actively Lazy Cat 2 years ago
Lol ice skates have come a long way since then, I imagine lots of broken ankles w those
#8
Two Little Girls In 1887
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Isn’t it weird when you look at these two adorable children, then realize they grew up, had lives and families of their own, grew old, and have been dead at least 50 years, if not longer? Or they died as children, and have been gone for the last 140 years? Yet here they are, forever children, forever alive, forever happy playing in the snow. Whoa. I need to stop this.
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
Sheesh, Kathryn, way to bring us all down, lol. I hear ya. I have similar thoughts when watching the old-time videos of folks just walking around, going to work or school, living their lives decades ago in a totally different world than the one I'm living in. The clothes, the cars, even the roads themselves all having changed completely. It's weird.
Load More Replies...
Mylittlecorgi 2 years ago
How practical these coats are! Deep hems that can be let down several times and the capes keep the girls from out-growing sleeves right away. I bet they wore these for years!
Mi So 2 years ago
The capes also added not just extra layers of warmth, but gave more for wet snow to have to get through before soaking into the coat itself. So smart.
Load More Replies... AnnaRachelle 2 years ago
I honestly prefer their clothing. Especially when I compare their clothes to what I was wearing in the 1980's
#9
A Young Boy Comforting His Friend In Scotland, 1968
Agamemnon O'Neill 2 years ago
Comforting him as they walk back to the coal mine for the afternoon shift.
Joe Reaves 2 years ago
Lol, no, they're walking back to the tenements they live in.
Load More Replies...
Sian Edwards 2 years ago
Places like Glasgow and Edinburgh suffered a great deal of poverty for a lot of the 20th century. Crumbling tenement buildings, rapid increase in population and lack of suitable housing meant people were living in slums into the early 1980s. From the 1960s onwards, large council housing estates and high rise apartments were built (often out of the city with poor transport links) but it took time to move people, and some of the worst slums were demolished completely. By the early 90s a lot of the new build housing was found to be poorly constructed and riddled with asbestos, gang related crime had escalated due to lack of infrastructure and the housing estates and high rise apartments became just as deprived as the slums were. Now those estates and high rises are being demolished and rebuilt.
Load More Replies... 
Richard Low 2 years ago
This was the mid to late 60s Scottish football was at its pinnacle then.
Load More Replies...
Kucharczyk shared with us his favorite discovery and the story behind the vintage photograph: “Each photo has an amazing story. Not all stories are known. There is a photo that brought me back to my hometown. The photo was given to the grandson by his grandma. The grandson sold the photo, and it was found 450 km from home. This elderly woman was very surprised when I showed her this picture. She was very young in the photo, and I wouldn't recognize her. She confirmed it was her portrait. She gave this picture as a gift to her grandson. It had been sold, and I found it in a marketplace, 450 km from this woman's place of residence.”
#10
Frederick Patterson Was The First African-American To Manufacture Cars
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
This looks to be from the early 1900s. Seems C.R. Patterson & Sons of Greenfield, Ohio, made the Patterson-Greenfield automobile from 1915 to 1918. Named for Frederick's father, Charles Richard Patterson, there's much more to the story of the first (and, so far, only) African American owned car company here: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/only-african-american-automobile-company
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
I'll bet that car screamed with that 6 cylinder motor, but the ride would have been mighty rough with those wheels.
M O'Connell 2 years ago
It's a 4-cylinder. Pairs of cylinders sharing an intake runner, and discreet exhaust ports. The block was probably cast as pairs rather than as one large piece. Sticking up next to the spark plugs would be manual priming cups to make the engine easier to crank-start.
Load More Replies...
#11
A Female Firefighting Team On A Converted Motorcycle In London, 1932
Rodney McKay 2 years ago
10 mph max speed with that load? Kind of small engine for the purpose.
#12
On The Left, Antonin Baldrman Is Pictured At 17 Years Old. On The Right, He Is 101 Years Old
Aria Whitaker 2 years ago
He doesnt look a day over 85 :) It is also interesting how ears still seem to keep growing….
Load More Replies...
AffenpinscherMom 2 years ago
My grandmother just turned 101 on July 15th. She still does NY Times crossword puzzles and her health is still good. It's unbelievable to think of all that she has experienced since 1922.
Lastly, we were wondering what lessons or inspirations the photographer draws from the past that influenced his work as a photographer in the present. Krzysztof told us: “Understatements. I like when everything is not clear. I like to create blurred, natural images without Photoshop. I appreciate analog photography and its softness and depth. All of this is missing from digital photography.”
#13
A Mother Homeschools Her Children, Louisiana, 1937
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
There's just a teeny bit more to this story! Found it at the New York Public Library Digital Collection with this caption: "Negro mother teaching children numbers and alphabet in home of sharecropper, Transylvania, Louisiana, January 1939." See it here: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-8719-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
NotMykl 2 years ago
It's written, "The rain are fallin" which is not correct syntax
Load More Replies...
#14
Two Women Sitting Under A Tree 117 Years Ago!
Cynthia Kelly 2 years ago (edited)
The one on the left is dead. This picture is from the Burns Memento Mori archive. It was a final picture with her sister. It wasn't uncommon to have relatives take pictures with their dead to memorialize them. Notice the bruising on her neck and hands. https://www.burnsarchive.com/historical-death-memorial
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
I read the first sentence and thought, "It's been 117 years, hon, pretty sure they're both dead by now!" and then realized what you meant. Yikes! Makes this picturesque scene just a tad creepy. Thanks for the info.
Load More Replies... 
Donna Fitzgerald 2 years ago
I thought they looked beautiful but so sad and wondered if they were in mourning, even more so because the one of the left seemed to be “slumped” forward. Then saw that she is actually dead, wow, can’t imagine posing with a loved one that way.
Maisey Myles 2 years ago
What I came here to say!!! They could've been his models
Load More Replies... Draga Millani 2 years ago
And they were roommates ;) (Unless they were sisters. If they were sisters they were just ever sisters)
#15
Rainy Nights In London, 1899
Russell Rieckenberg 2 years ago
When I see photos like this, I don't understand the obsession many contemporary photographers have razor sharp, can count the nose hairs, resolution.
#16
Rural One-Room School House In Florida, 1870s
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
The rural one room schoolhouses in every backwoods, rural, or otherwise remote location were responsible for bringing literacy to people who would never have learned their Three Rs without them. For free!
Delta Dawn 2 years ago (edited)
My great-grandparents were schooled in one.
Load More Replies...
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Maybe not poor babies. If it was a really hot day, it probably made them one hell of a lot more comfortable than the adults with shoes and socks/stockings on. I spent many a summer nearly 100% barefoot as a kid. I would only wear shoes—-sandals—-if I had to. Otherwise, I was barefoot. My mother wouldn’t let me back in the house—-and definitely not go to bed in the sheets she had to wash—-if I hadn’t cleaned off my feet first.
Load More Replies... 
Geoffrey Scott 2 years ago
We still have some township schools standing in Central Mi. Some converted into homes, some local government buildings. In use as schools until the 60's, once you were done there, you went "to town" for school.
#17
A Portrait Taken Of A Woman While She Was Mid-Sneeze
BetterBitterButter 2 years ago
I imagine getting photographed must have been quite expensive and not that frequent in those times. Imagine getting your photo like this. But I am glad it happened this way so that we could see it like this.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 2 years ago
"Come a little closer and tell me again. When did you take the picture?"
Load More Replies...
#18
A Woman Churning Milk To Butter While Reading A Book, 1897
LonelyLittleLeafSheep 2 years ago
You can make fresh butter in about 15 minutes by shaking heavy cream vigorously in a jar. Much easier and a fun trick at get togethers.
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
You know, I don't think I've ever had a get-together that needed more butter, but I shall keep it in mind ;-)
Load More Replies...
Mylittlecorgi 2 years ago
How often do you suppose this girl got yelled at for reading when she should have been "tending to chores?"
#19
Two Musicians Sitting On A Porch In Louisiana, 1938
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
I can imagine just how damned GOOD the music they made was, just sitting on that stoop.
Gustav Gallifrey 2 years ago
If they'd made records, they'd probably still be getting sold and played today.
Load More Replies...
Fabiane Thiessen 2 years ago
Makes u want to sit there and listen to them play. It's a great photo
#20
Teachers On Spring Break, 1910
Millie Hunsberger 2 years ago
Yes, very beautiful clothing! However, completely normal sized waists for the body size of these women. A large, padded, pigeon bust blouse and the structure of their gowns leads to the impression of smaller waists, also. Corsets were used for shaping the gown, not the body. Sorry for spilling all that out, I just love talking about this stuff, and the 1900s are my absolute favorite time period!
Load More Replies...
Rizzo 2 years ago
I bet the children were all angels back then and their job wasn't that hard. ;)
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
You know it. The kids were worn out from walking to school uphill in both directions. 🙄
Load More Replies...
Paula Wynn 2 years ago (edited)
YEPPERS! Margaritas at our favorite Mexican restaurant as soon as the buses leave!!!😁
Load More Replies...
Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago (edited)
Reminds me of taking brownies on pack holiday. We hid outside so that there could be a planned midnight feast, that obvious as leaders we knew nothing about… Cue 4 guiders stood in a church hall car park in the dark trying to open a bottle of wine with a dodgy corkscrew. Think we resorted to pushing the cork in in the end. Wouldn’t be allowed now!
#21
Photographer Above The Skies Of Berlin, 1912
Realistic_Lemons (any) 2 years ago
It would be royally terrifying to stand on that being that high in the air
Boredest Disabled Panda 2 years ago
That...takes more intestinal fortitude than I will ever have. Literally no safety equipment is visible at all, probably because it didn't exist back then.
Richard Low 2 years ago
That's not the proper attire for Working at heights, where is the health and safety officer when you need him.
Shawnna Clement 2 years ago
She would be able to vote in six more years while American women had to wait another two.
#22
A Cow Carries Seven Children “To School”. Washington, 1907
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
I was going to say poor cow. But the cow's face actually looks content.
Bob La Capra 2 years ago
Back in my day I had to ride a cow to school. Up hill both ways, in the snow with six other kids all wearing stylish hats.
Bouche, Audi, and Shyla, oh my! 2 years ago
During my stint in prison, I'd tell people that I'd ridden the short Paddy wagon to prison. Try explaining that to a Russian woman raised in Israel!
Load More Replies...
#23
Portrait Of Unidentified Beautiful Family, Around 1875
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I hope one of them is reading this article and recognizes a face that looks like themself or one of their relatives. There would be such a beautiful symmetry to that. Same goes for the other pictures of unknown people that get put in articles here.
Load More Replies...
Aria Whitaker 2 years ago (edited)
Wow. 1875? If they were in the US south, they were probably born into slavery. Great photo.
Piper 2 years ago (edited)
It wouldn’t be just the South, sadly. Delaware was the last state to free their slaves. NJ had slaves through 1865. Rhode Island and Connecticut had slaves in the 1840s.
Load More Replies...
Nykky 2 years ago
I hope that kid's just asleep, but I think they're actually dead. It was commonplace back then to get a photo of your dead child in a position similar to this to honor the life that wasn't meant to be.
Jessica Urquhart 2 years ago
I really hope the baby was alive. The alternative is just too awful.
Load More Replies... Melissa Robinson 2 years ago
The fact that the baby is still worried me, the had to be still a long time, and back then with pictures being so costly, they only took a picture when a child died. They often took postmortem pics with dead people they loved. Ever propped them up in poses.
Ashley Dennis 2 years ago
I'm pretty sure this is a mourning photo, the child does not look like she is alive. They were very common back then as a way to remember their children and loved ones.
Lisa Gaw Harris 2 years ago
What a beautiful family. I wonder if there are any of their family left.
#24
A Little Gang In Paris, 1950
Brian Leahy 2 years ago
It's like someone composed this photo and then said "How can we tip people off this is in France? Hmmm.... I KNOW!"
Hydro Keychain 2 years ago
Known to all in the Parisian criminal underworld as the 'Baguette Boys.'
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 2 years ago
ahem "Oceans 4"...2 was when they had that....
Load More Replies... #25
An Immigrant Family Arriving At Ellis Island In 1904
Agamemnon O'Neill 2 years ago
The poor eldest daughter! She was doing a lot of cooking and laundry.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
And an excellent advertisement for Margaret Sanger’s crusade to make birth control legal.
Aboredpanda 2 years ago (edited)
Back when scandinavians were the most loathed impoverished immigrants in New York. Described as dirty and having too many children, not contributing to society. Etc. (In an old news clipping from the time that I saw many, many years ago). It seems people are vile to others over the same damn things regardless of what time we live in.
ILoveMySon 2 years ago
The Irish were treated EXTREMELY badlly. as well. My family still has a sign "Irish Need Not Apply".
Load More Replies...
Shane G 2 years ago
At least 8. Childhood mortality was very high in the past.
Load More Replies...
Biofish23 2 years ago
I'm actually a little surprised there isn't a baby. It looks like pretty consistent kid every 2 ish years, but the youngest looks at least three, and mom isn't even (noticeably) pregnant. I really hope that it isn't because baby 9 didn't survive the trip.
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
What surprised me, is that in those days, it was not unusual for babies to die young. This family seems to have not had that tragedy.
Load More Replies...
Stephanie Softich 2 years ago
My grandparents came over from Yugoslavia during this time.. so young not knowing anyone.. First my grandpa at 19 to get established, then sent for his bride. And she traveled alone here. Years ago I actually found their ships manifest, the name of it everything and it appeared she had a baby daughter with her but she must of passed away on the trip .. there's no record of the baby arriving.. sad she went on to have 5 healthy boys, one to die in WWII . Now these were tough people. Extremely brave..
#26
A Couple Skating, Berlin, 1905
Walter Brameld 2 years ago
The Moon was a lot closer back then which is why everybody had to stand at an angle.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
Time when someone driving a tractor in a field might have a necktie on.
Load More Replies... 
Christopher Rogers 2 years ago
Props to the camera man for skating backwards to get this shot lol
#27
Women On Motorcycles In Great Britain, 1930s
Richard Graham 2 years ago (edited)
These are 1925 BSA Motorcycles. This photo is on the BSA site with this caption "Keen motorcyclists and twin sisters Nancy and Betty Debenham on their BSA motorcycles in England in 1925. BSA was once the biggest bike manufacturer in the world, owning the Triumph and Sunbeam brands © Getty Images"
Jackson 2 years ago
My wife started fights when she got a motorcycle. She would pull up beside a couple at a light, wait until the light was ready to change, rev. her engine to get their attention, and ask "Why does the woman always sit on the back?" When the light changed, she would take off with a chirp from the back wheel.
#28
Clint Eastwood Aged 26
Robin Roper 2 years ago (edited)
Always good looking and always a jerk; he ruined Sondra Locke's life. He was a total jerk to all his partners, married or not. He had many, many affairs.
Krisann Phillips 2 years ago
And it doesn't look like he's got much to share😂. Unfortunately he is my old man crush
Load More Replies... Redheaded1 2 years ago
I feel so old right now that I may actually fart dust
Load More Replies...
Anonymous Panda She/Her/Hers 2 years ago
The man's wearing nothing but a pair of tight briefs and a cheeky smile. Why are you surprised.
Load More Replies...
General Anaesthesia 2 years ago
Three years before Rawhide. Born 1930, photo 1956, Rawhide 1959-65.
Load More Replies... Brent Amador 1 year ago
I’ve been saying for years, that Scott needs to do remakes/prequels to his fathers westerns
#29
Lifeboat Carrying Titanic Survivors, 1912
BetterBitterButter 2 years ago
I read somewhere that since most survivors were women and children their eyewitness account (how the ship sank etc)was not considered believable. It wasn't until the wreckage was discovered that their accounts were accepted as real.
Disgruntled Pelican 2 years ago
I wish I were surprised by this. I imagine they were considered "too hysterical" to believe?
Load More Replies...
Shawnna Clement 2 years ago
If a ship were to sink today, I doubt anyone would be screaming "Women and children first". It would be, "Every man for himself".
Deborah Rubin 2 years ago
Three dogs survived the sinking, a pekinese and two pomeranians, they were small enough to be wrapped in a blanket. A woman tried to get on the lifeboat but when told her great dane was too large, she went back on the ship to stay with here dog. I can understand.
#30
Young Cotton Mill Workers In 1909
Malfar 2 years ago
Some of them look like they are 40 years old already. Child labor...
Load More Replies... Billycat 2 years ago
My family tree is full of textile workers who died young from lung problems. Sad.
Pink kitty 2 years ago
I read a non fiction book about girls in textile factories. The heat, the long shifts and all the fibres in the air that ended up being inhaled causing lung problems. So many girls with a constant cough and breathing problems. It was very sad
Load More Replies...
Agnes Jekyll 2 years ago
That young girl in the middle--so rightly angry. How many are siblings I wonder.
Jen Hart 2 years ago
The two on the left look like they could be sisters.
Load More Replies... 
Karen Startz Richardson 2 years ago
This photo is incredibly sad. My grandfather farmed cotton, harvested it solo.. This makes me love and respect him even more.
teresa rudnik 2 years ago
The trouble is, they are the lucky ones. Workers that can eat and not join the sex trade. This is not always ‘ the good old days’.
Load More Replies... #31
A Family Going On The Summer Holiday In A Fiat 500, Italy, 1967
Robert T 2 years ago
I parked next to one once. My two seater classic British sports car was nearly twice the length of it.
Load More Replies...
Agnes Jekyll 2 years ago
is he going to make wine while on vacation? or is that already full of wine? (or something else?)
Rizzo 2 years ago
Looks more like someone is moving. Who takes all this stuff with them on vacation?
Donna Fitzgerald 2 years ago
I was thinking the bird has to be in the cage! Crazy!
Load More Replies... #32
A Businessman And Secretary Working In A Pool During A Heatwave In Berlin, Germany, 1926
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
You gotta do whatcha gotta do to get through the day, ya know. This is ingenious, btw. Remember, air conditioning existed, but was expensive, so wasn’t everywhere back then, especially in places where extreme heat is rare. Hell, I would’ve jumped in too, and set up housekeeping to live there for the duration of the heatwave back then.
Jessica Urquhart 2 years ago
Germany didn't use air conditioning. It's really only fairly recent that modern buildings have it, and those are usually shopping centres and grocery stores.
Load More Replies... bottomless.abyss.of.bordem 2 years ago
Sorry, all our water has been allocated to golf courses in Nevada.
Load More Replies...
Calvin Smelliott 2 years ago
He should be wearing the same type of bathing suit she has on. They’re built the same.
Bouche, Audi, and Shyla, oh my! 2 years ago
She should be wearing one like his.
Load More Replies... 
#33
Portrait Of Two Girls Washing Clothes In The Street Of London, 1900s
Marissa Taylor 2 years ago
Why. Omg ? Unless this was a work house or something like that it was normal for kids to do this kinda thing before playing
Load More Replies...
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I’ve done hand washing of several delicate pieces I have had in the past (sure as s**t do not buy stuff like that now, even though I can better afford them, because of the hand washing b******t), and I know the effect prolonged hand washing has. So I can just imagine how that would’ve made their poor little hands crack and bleed and hurt like hell.
araT sdrawkcaB 2 years ago (edited)
I love how the whole family chipped in, but these children have the looks of someone who has seen 40 years of life. Sweet creatures didn’t get to be kids.
Gustav Gallifrey 2 years ago
When people decry the way that the British Empire, with its prosperity and wealth, was built on the blood and sweat of colonised people, they should be aware that not EACH and EVERY Briton was wallowing in the luxury derived from that Empire. Many were no better off than the colonised peoples, some possibly worse off. And to a time much more recent than might be imagined.
Lex <3 (they/them) 2 years ago
Not as bad of a situation as the cotton mill workers, but still not an easy life 😔
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
We do not know what these children's day/ night job was.
Load More Replies...
Jeanette Harris 1 year ago
Yeah, those children was appreciative of everything that they received. They didn't slam themselves in the floor IN PUBLIC and have a bloody tantrum.
#34
A Group Of People At The Beach. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1910
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Especially when you find out the men’s swimsuits were made of itchy wool, and got heavy AF when wet. The women’s “bathing costumes” may have been made out of cotton jersey, but they were so restrictive, and there was SO f*****g much cloth used to make them, they ended up being incredibly heavy as well. I’m amazed more people didn’t drown from the sheer weight of their bathing suits when they got wet. Oh hey, fun fact: I live near Ocean City, MD, a beach resort that has had tourists since 1880, and has had a boardwalk since 1902. So of course, there’s a museum of the town’s history in the old Lifesaving Station. In that museum are several of the old wool men’s bathing suits. The vast majority of them are completely worn out and full of holes in the crotch area. Nope, not age, not moths. Itchy. Just. Really. REALLY. Itchy.
Load More Replies...
Bubs623 2 years ago
I know! I nearly fell over. Scandalous! Harlots- the lot of them!!
Load More Replies... Agnes Jekyll 2 years ago
My great uncle had a wool one--he said it would be waterlogged and stretched to his knees within an hour.
#35
A Tattoo Artist, 1920s
Marissa Fladwood 2 years ago
It's not a tattoo artist, it's The Tattoo Artist, Lyle Tuttle. A legend in the industry and an extraordinary man.
Living Example 2 years ago
In the 50's and 60's my doctor was a chain smoker. The only way I can picture him is with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His office was in the basement of his house in our neighborhood and his wife was his nurse. He made house calls. That needs to be brought back. When you have something like the flu you don't want to go out or infect other people.
Dash Junior 2 years ago
Makes me want to start smoking again. So cool. A whiskey and coke and a smoke. Coffee and a smoke. Heaven. Thank goodness for the mild heart attack I had three weeks ago. I will never light up again.
Jessica Urquhart 2 years ago
Don't regret quitting. It really doesn't look cool and classy to see people smoking. I look at all these teens and young adults here in Germany and think about how cool and sexy they want to look, but all they're doing is aging themselves terribly. Smokers stink, their homes and clothes stink. Some people I know have discoloration of their gums, and I wonder if it's cancer. It isn't worth it.
Load More Replies...
PeepPeep the duck 2 years ago
I love the old navy tattoos, seeing them on old guys who served, it’s kinda cool to see a lot of the ‘sailor Jerry’ style ones hold up in colour without greening
Mega Karen 2 years ago
One thing I'm grateful for about living in the modern day is we know how infections happen and how to prevent them. I hope that piece healed well because it's beautiful.
#36
New York Street Style, 1940s
araT sdrawkcaB 2 years ago
I commend the dedication women had to their hair before the messy bun. Because holy moly.
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
I can hear this photo! "Yeah, take a picture, it lasts longer!" "What are youse looking at?" "Sumthing I can help ya wid?" And the hair is to die for.
Manic Mama 2 years ago
A bit off topic, but I'm looking at the woman on the right with the cigarette and thinking "God I miss smoking". It's been 26 years since I gave up.
Karen Krause 2 years ago
The woman in the suit with the pin looks like the actress who played in the "Alice" tv show.
#37
Portrait Of 2 Lads With Their Baby Sibling Taken In Manhattan, New York, 1918
Jerusalem Cat Syndrome 2 years ago
Well, no, or the arms wouldn't be free.
Load More Replies...
Marilyn Russell 2 years ago
You’re probably right. But at least it has been renovated.
Load More Replies... 
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
I fear that this was taken after their parents passed.
Load More Replies... #38
Annie Edson Taylor Poses With Her Cat And The Barrel She Rode Over The Falls, 1901
Alyssa Brown 2 years ago
If i recall correctly she did it because she needed the money associated with doing the stunt
Load More Replies...
Andy Frobig 2 years ago
I know that "over the falls in a barrel" implies Niagara Falls, but if everybody knew everything, we wouldn't need these listicles. Be specific
Tiny Dancer 2 years ago
Give it up for Annie, the first person to ever go over the Falls in a barrel! It was another 19 years before someone died trying the same stunt. She was 63 years old at the time of her attempt, a school teacher with no daredevil experience. She just wanted a little fame and fortune. They tested the barrel by sending her cat over on its own a couple of days before she tried it! And the cat survived! So, she tumbled into the history books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Edson_Taylor
#39
Camera Girls, Late 1930s
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I got the baby fine hair from my mother’s side. There’s lots of it, but since each strand is so damned thin, it doesn’t look like a lot of hair, and tends to lay flat, to boot. If it was a normal thickness, I’d have thick hair. But I don’t. So believe me when I say that my whole life I have always been just pea green with envy of people who have beautiful heads of long thick hair like these two young women.
Load More Replies...
araT sdrawkcaB 2 years ago
Is a camera girl a photographer? because googling the answer proved to be…interesting.
Ben 2 years ago
They took keepsake photos. Not sure why they needed a distinction.
Load More Replies...
Danny Boy 2 years ago
Okay, look at the dark-haired one, with her camera and the expression on her face, and tell me you aren't reminded of some Twilight Zone-esque episode about a photographer whose camera takes pictures that reveal how one will die, and then mysteriously causes each death, like clockwork, after 3 days..... Boo!
#40
A Typical American Family In 1950s, Detroit, Michigan
Delta Dawn 2 years ago
Was it though? Mine were poor farmers, as were all their neighbors. I think STEREOtypical white family is more like it.
Load More Replies...
Ursula S. 2 years ago
Please just stop the snarking on both sides. People don't asked to be born white or black or brown. It just is what it is or in this case, is what it was.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Their point was that this is far from the whole picture and so isn't "typical= as claimed
Load More Replies...
StarlightPanda! 2 years ago
What is wrong with you people? Always have to make it about race. Get off here with that c**p.
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Single income too. Could still own a house and car, had healthy savings accounts and college funds set up——and took a decent vacation every year too. That was back when the American Dream was still achievable. What really sucks is that so many of that very same generation, whether intentionally or not, were so incredibly shortsighted, and ended up doing so many stupid things that would ensure their kids and grandkids could not achieve that dream at all.
Delta Dawn 2 years ago
Look at the size of that house. Do you think a modern family is out there shopping for a 700 sq ft house? And women were expected to not work once married, and therefore were a dependent of their husband, with nothing of their own. Oh and also, men just literally *dropped dead* of heart attack at age 53, leaving behind no income, a widow and traumatized children. I’d say things have improved in a whole lot of ways, even if most adults are expected to work and it takes two incomes to afford a big house.
Load More Replies... Mouse 2 years ago
"The household median income in the U.S. in 1950 was $2,990 — roughly 40% of the median home value of $7,354 at the time"
Load More Replies... Geoffrey Scott 2 years ago
Please keep in mind fellow US citizens, that 800-1000 sq ft house was the dream. Most would drive on by now
#41
Robert Wadlow, The Tallest Man In History, With His Family In 1935
David H 2 years ago
he had a medical condition that the body never stops growing until the body fails
Lauren Wilder 2 years ago (edited)
Due to excessive growth hormone. Now there are was to stop it before it causes irreversible damage.
Load More Replies... Robert Trebor 2 years ago
He was 8' 11.1", 439 pounds. Pose him next to Charles Sherwood Stratton (Tom Thumb), who was 2' 11".
Judes 2 years ago
He's not the dad of the family. He's the son of the man second from the right and the woman second from the left. The four others are his sisters and brothers.
Load More Replies... Phillip Moderow 2 years ago
My dad actually knew him. Robert Wadlow's car had the driver's seat removed so he could drive from the back seat.
Nimitz 2 years ago
Funny how you can see the two smaller guys having trouble standing straight with just the weight of his hands resting on their shoulders
Jessica N 2 years ago
He had to lean on them to stand up for long as his knees and hips were deteriorating. I've always been fascinated by the record holders...until the more recent weird ones like smashing beer cans with a bewb 😂
Load More Replies... 
Lex <3 (they/them) 2 years ago (edited)
I’ve been to a museum where they had an exhibit about this person, and it also had a model of what his shoe would have looked like. It was cool but sadly people with this condition rarely live long lives :’(
#42
An Immigrant Family Looking At Manhattan From The Dock At Ellis Island. August 13, 1925
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I hope they had happy and wonderful lives in their new country.
Eric Adams-Sellier 2 years ago
Don’t do it! Run while you still can! Go a little north to Canada. It turns out much better.
Jennie Dutton 2 years ago
The back of his little sailor suit looks like the face of a lab pup!🤣💜
Lisa Gaw Harris 2 years ago
Imagine all they had to go through to get here & what they had to do to make it.
Alaskatgal 2 years ago
A little reminder… at some point most of our families started as immigrants. 💝
#43
Graduation Ceremonies In The Late 1890s Were Quite The Event!
Duck 2 years ago
I love the way those old fashioned dresses look. Its hard nowadays to find a decent long dress without it having spaghetti straps or an open back or a bunch of cutouts. Or it's paper thin and see through
Ąåřţđęşịɠŋȿ 2 years ago
These dresses have a lot of layers and accoutrements to get that shape
Load More Replies...
Upstaged75 2 years ago
A lot of all-girl schools still do the white dress thing at graduation - it's tradition.
Al! 2 years ago
When I graduated high school it was still traditional to wear white under your graduation gown.
Cynthia Carter 2 years ago
The girls wore white robes, guys wore black and we were actually in alternating seats. 1969, San Francisco suburb.
Load More Replies...
Marie Dahme 2 years ago
You can still get these dresses up to size 4X….www.recollections.biz. !
#44
The Opening Of The Eiffel Tower During The 1889 World’s Fair
James Edwards 2 years ago (edited)
Wow... 1st one on the list I haven't seen a hundred times! +1
#45
A Group Of Kids Gathered Together, Massachusetts, 1904
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Oh man, how I just love climbing trees. I was a wiry little monkey when I was a kid, and would climb anything. My parents always had to shoo me off the kitchen counters, or I’d get into the cupboards where the snacks were kept. I’m 62 now, and not as wiry as I used to be, but I still like climbing trees whenever I can, unless some a*****e has trimmed every single lower branch off so I can’t get a good start.
Cptn_Oblivious 2 years ago
Kid in the center looks like he's in the middle of falling out of the tree when the photo was taken. That or just floating there
Stephanie Softich 2 years ago
We loved climbing the trees and hiking all the surrounding mountains..
#46
Christmas Dinner, 1936. Dinner Consisted Of Potatoes, Cabbage And Pie
David 2 years ago
I know. I was looking at that and wondering how it figured in to what appears to be a small house. I've seen them in person. They were not quite as rare in my childhood. I assume they had it as part of the family business. If it is for personal use all you need to do is wait. We had a dairy farm and brought a bucket (container) of raw milk up each day for use in the house. If we needed some cream for some reason we just skimmed it off the top.
Load More Replies...
Dak Janiels 2 years ago
Interesting - there aren't any comments on THIS being a "typical" white family in the 30's, though I'm sure it was more typical than history notes.
Beth Vega 2 years ago
I just made a statement about that and then I saw yours.
Load More Replies... Breanna Ardrey 2 years ago
Great depression, but the kids are at home together going to sleep with full bellies. So that is really all that matters
Beth Vega 2 years ago
What a contrast to the pic above that people assume was the typical white family. Seems an equal amount or more lived in this manner.
Lesley Robinson 2 years ago (edited)
The other picture was 20 years later, after ww2. Things were more prosperous by then.
Load More Replies...
Teri Conlan 2 years ago
Illustrates just how blessed we are today. God bless those little ones...
#47
A Saloon That Allowed Children Their Own Child-Size Beers, Wisconsin, 1890
Heather Fauber 2 years ago
Everyone complains about chemicals in the water but they think not of getting clean drinking water with the turn of a tap and not dying from typhoid or cholera.
sofacushionfort 2 years ago (edited)
I farmed with old guys who were the generation after this boy. Boys worked all day in the summers and so if they wanted, they were welcome in the taverns and brothels.
celeste hall 2 years ago
Ssssmall beer made on the same grain after teh adult beer is made so lower in alcohol but still enough to kill bacteria that made water dangerous to drink without boiling
Jessica N 2 years ago (edited)
Wisconsinite here, beer still is ;) just not for kids
Load More Replies...
geezeronthehill 2 years ago
Grew up in WI in the fifties. We kids could have beer with the evening meal. When I got to college a lot of my new friends went overboard for beer. I didn't.
Lisa Jarvis 2 years ago
Water could kill by cholera or at least e coli. Milk is available could give them tb. The Chinese rail builders of the west survived best and longest because they only drank tea...boiled water!
#48
The Mississippi River Frozen Solid, 1905
Michael None 2 years ago
It's the Eads bridge in St. Louis, Missouri. My home town.
Load More Replies... Danny Boy 2 years ago
...The Ice Queen surveys the barren expanse wrought by the poison of her faerie curse and the fierceness of her wrath. The mortals would rue the day they ran afoul of the Fae, 'cause we be working they last nerves, and the chickens is coming home to roost, ya'll... Just sayin'.
LargeMarge 2 years ago
This happened in the early 1900s and as someone who has lived in Saint Louis most of my life, I can attest this was the norm until the 2000s.
Load More Replies... B. J. Moore 1 year ago
My grandmother ice skated across the Mississippi at St. Louis as a young woman.
Lisa Jarvis 2 years ago
The Hudson was a lucrative source of blocks of ice. Not likely ever again.
#49
Victorian Couple On A Tandem Bicycle, 1890s
Zara VP 2 years ago
Getting your photo taken at this time was very expensive. They rarely smiled due to fear of 'ruining' the photo.
Load More Replies...
Catastrophisticate 2 years ago
It's Miss Gulch! She'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too! LOL
Seonag Udell 2 years ago
Omg, I thought the same thing. It really does look like her.
Load More Replies...
#50
Group Of Friends In Beer Garden, Munich, Germany
jasper 2 years ago
I like that it's literally a garden, and not just a big tent like they have nowadays.
Verena 2 years ago
Oktoberfest = Tents, on for about 10 days, in a dedicated area of town. Biergarten = no tents, all year round if weather allows, at parks and in the backyard of pubs
Load More Replies...
#51
A Lamp Lighter At Work In London, 1935
Karen Krause 2 years ago
Reminds me of Muppets Treasure Island: Light the lamp, not the rat! Not the rat!
Load More Replies... 
Paul Brown 2 years ago
My grandfather's first job as a kid was a Lamplighter in Wilmington, Delaware USA
#52
A Family On A Motorcycle With A Sidecar On The Beach In Morocco, 1936
#53
Kendall Green Bike Club In Front Of Faculty Row, 1885
Bill Swallow 2 years ago
Their parents lifted up to the seats as infants, and they grew up there.
Load More Replies...
#54
An American Family Leaves Florida For The North During The Great Depression
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Part of The Great Migration from the agricultural Jim Crow sharecropping south to the industrial north! in search of better job opportunities and lives. The Great Migration lasted from 1910 to the 1970s, and contributed a lot of talent to the Harlem Renaissance from post-WWI to the mid 1930s.
David 2 years ago
Crowded car. My friend is in her 70s. She has memories of road trips with her family in a car like this. Mom and dad up front. Her and her three sisters crowded in the back. Or maybe sometimes one of them was up front so it was 3x3. Point being she was telling me last week how crowded it was.
Tracy Wallick 2 years ago
Guy on the far right looks EXACTLY like a modern actor, but I'm brainfarting on his name
#55
Dairy Queen In 1954!
Sans Serif 2 years ago (edited)
Not necessarily looking like that but, "There are 4,306 Dairy Queen restaurants in the United States as of July 07, 2023."
Load More Replies... Rizzo 2 years ago
I was about to write: "I can hear this picture ... One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock." - but the song was published in 1955. ;)
GlamourGhoul 2 years ago
I'm still mad at Dairy Queen for taking my favorites off the menu. We still take my daughter for her favorite cherry dipped cone.
Katy McMouse 2 years ago
We had a Dairy Queen just like that until the early aught. It wasn't the same after they moved into a plaza.
#56
One Of The Oldest Person To Have Been Photographed In 1840-1850
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
I need to know her name and birth/death dates, please. Exactly HOW old is she? Was she a child or young woman during the American Revolution? Because that would be cool.
#57
A Couple Enjoys Their Custom-Made Camper In 1918
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
That’s how people were back then. They dressed up for everything. Men mowed the lawn in their suits—-usually minus just the jacket and tie. It wasn’t until well into the seventies and early eighties that that generation started wearing more casual clothing. I’m 62, and can remember my mother getting dressed up—-including squeezing herself into a girdle (and ladies, Spanx are just girdles, regardless of the name and the era)—-to go to the grocery store on Saturday night, or to go out anywhere, tbh.
Load More Replies... #58
Mother And Children, 1900
A C 2 years ago
Given that the woman is wearing all black, I'm guessing that it's possible they all just lost their father!?
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
It's possible, but it might just be after Labor Day (can't wear white). We don't know the dress is actually black, after all.
Load More Replies... Breanna Ardrey 2 years ago
She looks so serious. Cuz it's the only family photo thriller priv ever take. Freaking out.. Imagine if she knew about cell phones & filters & all the bs we have now..
#59
Postman Empties Mailbox Attached To A German Tram, Berlin, 1920
Awkward lady 2 years ago
They still do this in the Austrian mountains, collection boxes are placed on the buses for post.
#60
Us Soldier Giving A Japanese Girl A Bicycle Ride. Japan, 1946
Lil Miss Hobbit 2 years ago
He didn't want to be deployed there. She used to hate Americans. But that was how he met your mother.
#61
Rush Hour, New York City, 1909
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Not nearly as nauseating as the smell of so many unwashed humans. A sports stadium full of horse manure in Texas during the summer wouldn't smell half as disgusting.
Load More Replies... 
Cassidy Moore 2 years ago
Damn ever since there has been traffic there has been those damn Final Destination logs
#62
Children Enjoying The Water In The Streets In New York City, 1954
David H 2 years ago
people still do this, its illegal without fire dept permission, so they know which hydrants need water to repumped
David 2 years ago
What are you talking about? Is that a joke? you don't 'repump' hydrants. They are just valves attached to pressurized pipes - usually the same as the city water mains.
Load More Replies... Richard Graham 2 years ago
The car on the right is a 1952 to 1953 Ford Mainline Sedan (Ford's base model). The black sedan down the street is a 1948 Dodge. Behind it is a late 1940s DeSoto Taxi.
#63
Early Car At The Gas Station
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
It took from when cars were first driven to about 1975 for gas to get to 69¢, say about 70 or so years. It took from 1975 to now for gas to get to over $5, so 48 years. And it's hit over $5 before now, too. Now tell me about how there's not runaway inflation and greed.
David 2 years ago
It sounds silly now but I can remember having an argument with my mom back in the 70s with me saying gas was not going to reach a dollar a gallon. Obviously I didn't mean forever but it happened much sooner than I expected.
Load More Replies... Tuesday's child 2 years ago
At my grandma's house. There is a picture that looks really similar to this
Lee Henderson 2 years ago
My father owned a Shell station for 54 years. I was born in 1960 and remember, as a child, gas being 35.9¢/gallon.
Duck 2 years ago
Wow that's a tiny car. And an open front! I forgot what the old cars looked like lol
Richard Graham 2 years ago
This is a car from the first few years of the Twentieth Century. They are wearing clothes from the 1930s. This must be a "gag" photo of a humorously old car. (There was not much of a concept of antique cars in the 1930s.)
Crybabyartist 2 years ago
Or, since it's the 1930's this "old" car is the only car they could afford.
Load More Replies... #64
Handsome Man From The Late 1800s
Deborah Rubin 2 years ago
I could do without the swirled up ends of the mustache, other than that, quite attractive.
araT sdrawkcaB 2 years ago
🎼🎼You may not have the looks. You may not have the dash. But to win yourself a girl If you only got a moustache A moustache, a moustache If you only got a moustache.🎼🎼
#66
Models On A Smoke Break, Italy, 1950
mSpencer 2 years ago
As much as smoking ages a person's skin, I bet those ladies regretted that later
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
They probably started smoking as an appetite suppressant, then ended up hooked. Can’t really go in being a model with yellow teeth, yellow-brown fingers, and premature wrinkles around your mouth.
Load More Replies...
#67
Mother And Her Three Daughters, 1895
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Um... those children are drugged. Which wasn't unusual, but wow, their faces... that's kind of heartbreaking.
Load More Replies... #68
An ‘Ice Man’, Delivering A 25lb Block Of Ice In 1928, Houston, Texas. (Click To See The Full Picture)
#69
Bread Being Sold Off The Back Of A Hand Cart, 1925
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
$1.05 today, adjusting for inflation. Way cheaper, like a quarter to a third of the price for both bakery bread and mass produced.
Load More Replies...
#70
Children Playing At The Washington Park Playground, 1907
David 2 years ago
back when playgrounds were fun instead of safe. It was still 'sort of' this way in the 60s.
PowellSkier 2 years ago
The playgrounds I used in the late 70's to early 80's were almost this fun, just not as high.
Load More Replies...
Just a ray of f'ing sunshine 2 years ago
I love the kid swinging upside down with his legs through the rings!!!
#71
A Country Girl And Her Friends Munch Pie After A Morning Of Hunting, Ca. 1910s. Note The Dapper Horse, Wearing A Jaunty Cap
HungryPanda 2 years ago
This whole description could be the title of an adult film. Just sayin..
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Just had to go there, didn’t you? There’s always one…
Load More Replies... 
#73
Harley-Davidson School For Motorcycle Mechanics, 1917
UpQuarkDownQuark 2 years ago
“And this is the sprocket that makes it unnecessarily loud. You’re going to want to turn this all the way up, every time, boys.”
sofacushionfort 2 years ago
True, although the army used over twice as many Indians than Harleys
Load More Replies...
#74
Telephone Repair Wagon And Repairman, 1887, California
#75
Love This Shot Of Some Fancy "Weekending" At Silver Lake, Washington In 1920
Glen Ellyn 2 years ago
I imagine this was very relaxing and it felt great to be out in the fresh air, away from the possibly noisy, dirty city.
Spittnimage 2 years ago
Those tables just the right size for little critters to help themselves.
#76
A Construction Worker Takes A Break From Building The Chrysler Building, New York, 1930
#77
Children With Their Dog Pulling Wagon, 1910
#78
Shoe Shiners Taking A Lunch Break, New York City, 1947
B Jean the Jelly Bean 2 years ago
Achieved by putting their trousers between mattress and box springs
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
I used to get a quarter about 1965 or so. I wasn't a street shiner. It was just for the downstairs neighbor in our little duplex. I would shine his shoes, get 25 cents, walk about three blocks to a little store and get a soft serve ice cream cone for 15 cents. Santa Cruz, CA was a cozy little town back then. I hear it is pretty huge now
#79
A Group Of Young Boys In The Early 1940s, Washington
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Same here. My greatest wish is that they all had wonderful, happy, successful, and long lives. I hope hope hope they all did.
Load More Replies... #80
This Giant Sequoia Tree Was Estimated To Be Over 2600 Years Old When It Was Cut Down In The 1890s
AnnaRachelle 2 years ago
It is heartbreaking to know that thus beautiful tree was cut down. Bloody humans!
Catherine Maven 2 years ago
Especially sad considering that this species can live up to 3,000 years!!
#81
Couple Walks Along The Beach In Atlantic City, 1890
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
They must have been just baking, especially her, in the summer heat. It’s the reason women had “the vapors” and fainted so much. Tightly laced into their corsets nd wearing like 20 lbs of clothing covering them up to the neck, down to the floor, and to their wrists. No chance to get cool at all, until you could sit in a bathtub full of cool water. Soooo happy we can wear more temperature appropriate clothing now.
Joan Dobbert 2 years ago
As someone who wears historical costumes as long as the fabric is cotton/linen/silk it isn't so bad. Polyester pants and shirt is actually much lest comfortable. Granted a single layer cotton maxi dress is less restrictive than a corset.
Load More Replies... Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago
How did the legs of that chair get away with being naked??
#82
Mule-Powered Trolley In Galveston, Texas, Late 19th-Century
#83
A Young Boy And Girl On The Way To School For The Start Of A New Term In The 1920s
#84
1920s Farm School In Missouri, Note The Scowl On The Teacher's Face, Also Some Of These Children Are Shoeless
Dustin Alcaraz 2 years ago
This is when teachers could beat kids for acting out. Thats why she is holding on to little Timmy. lil Rascal!
#85
Noon Break At Glass Factory, East St. Louis, Missouri. 1910
AnnaRachelle 2 years ago
Heartbreaking. These lads should be in school. 100 years and thankfully things have changed
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Unfortunately not always for the better. For example, the city of East St Louis, IL.
Load More Replies...
gerard julien 2 years ago
" The United States has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC); however, it remains the only United Nations member state to have not ratified it. "
#86
Workers Laying Bricks To Pave 28th Street In Manhattan, 1930
primeline31 2 years ago (edited)
Not bricks, but granite cobblestones. Many years later, when NYC repaved the streets, millions of these went to masonry depots and now line countless driveways and were used to build street curbs in suburban areas.
#87
A Typical Family At The Time. Taken In The Midwest Sometime Around 1900
primeline31 2 years ago
This might be a sod house. Notice how thick the walls are at the front door.
MC C 2 years ago
they were encouraged to, your chances of living to adulthood were much lower
Load More Replies...
Marie A (Blondebat) 2 years ago
Early Nebraska settlers wer ecalled sodbusters for a good reason. My moms family was from Omaha.
#88
A Soldier Next To His War Horse, 1864
primeline31 2 years ago
Thanks, u/sofacushionfort. The man is General Ulysses S. Grant posing with his war horse, Cincinnati.
the_avenging_knight (her/she) 2 years ago
Thanks! I thought he looked like Grant!
Load More Replies... 
#89
Making Ice Cream In 1940
Bill Swallow 2 years ago
Yeah, that looks a lot like our old White Mountain ice cream freezer. Same sort of crank and gearbox arrangement.
#90
Handsome Man From The Late 1800s
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
I was thinking Chris Pratt. Somewhere in between the two, though. XD
Load More Replies... #91
A New York Farmer, 1960s
David 2 years ago
This looks like the draft horse team my step father had. He had tractors in 1970 but still had one pair of draft horses that were trained to plow and things. As a boy him and his father cleared their fields with draft horses and dynamite (for the stumps) and did their farming work with draft horses.
Agnes Jekyll 2 years ago
1960s? Wow!! I would've thought 40s--but milk was delivered in my neighbourhood by horse until the late 60s, so I should know better.
Bill Swallow 2 years ago
I grew up on a dairy farm in SW Pennsylvania in the 60s. A *lot* of our equipment was antique. Two tractors, one from 1940 and one from 1953. No combine (combine harvester) to bring the grain - we used a McCormick-Deering grain binder about one generation newer than Cyrus McCormick's original reaper, then shocked the sheaves of grain to let it dry, and hauled it in to run it through a belt-driven thresher. An old clapped-out Roanoke Junior hay baler with its own 2-cylinder engine (that always refused to start when the rain clouds were moving in). No forage harvester - we used a corn binder and hauled the corn in to run through a belt-driven silo filler. The hay rake was about one generation newer than the grain binder. Learned a lot about maintaining and using that equipment. In the 70's, we were able to upgrade a lot of things.
Load More Replies... SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Probably Belgians, a breed of draft horse known for their pulling power.
Load More Replies... Catherine Maven 2 years ago
We still got milk delivered by horse-drawn wagon up until the mid-1960s! Here's the company - https://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/restoration-of-dairy-wagon-is-a-tribute-to-welland-man-s-father/article_c5bd5cb4-08bb-590f-a2b7-2a6ed3697cf3.html?
#92
18 Year-Old Mother From Oklahoma In California, March 1937
Marie Dahme 2 years ago
Looks like a photo by Dorothea Lange. A lot of her work is housed at the Library of Congress
#93
The Crowds On State Street, Chicago, 1895
#94
Lumberjacks In 1920
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
My paternal grandfather did this stuff, right around the same time. He was incredibly tough.
#95
Elderly Victorian Couple, 1880
#97
People Swiming, 1910
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I’d say later than 1910, as she isn’t wearing the requisite skirted bathing suit with black stockings and shoes of the 1910s. I’d say more like sometime in the early to mid 1920s, when bathing suit restrictions started to relax.
#98
Children Walking Along A Dirt Path Through A Wooded Area, 1940
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
I don’t think that’s a lunch bucket, or the other kids would have one too. I’m thinking they’re berry picking, ginsenging (aka ‘sangin’) or something like that, and my guess is they’re in the hill country of North Carolina,Tennessee, or Kentucky, maybe even Virginia.
#99
Tea On The Lawn, 1912
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Oh, they don't do laundry. They have staff for that.
Load More Replies... #100
Woman At Her Switchboard In 1914
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
But STILL the ONE source for any information/rumors/gossip you could ever want about what’s going on around town!
Load More Replies... #101
Mother & Child In The Kitchen, 1910
#102
A Street Scene From 1937
#103
Sharecropper Family, Georgia, July 1937
#104
Two-Seater In Paris, 1922
Duck 2 years ago
Yeah that seems a little dangerous. Wouldn't it be hard to see?
Load More Replies... #105
Rural Mail Delivery In 1914
#107
Migrant Farm Worker With His Wife And Ten Children, 1936
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Well, Mama ain’t smilin’, so his delivery method couldn’t have been all that good—-yes, the equipment worked, obviously, but it certainly didn’t seem to bring Mama any pleasure.
Load More Replies... 
#108
Claiborne County, Tennessee, 1940 - 1950
#109
Maintenance Worker Painting The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia, 1945
#110
Funeral Home In The 1900s
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
There are a lot of old established funeral homes that look just like this one, especially in small towns, all over the US. Mostly owned and run by the same family for generations. The family lives upstairs, the funeral parlor is downstairs, and the basement is used for embalming,
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
I don't know what it's called now, but the La Jolla restaurant in Los Gatos, CA, used to be their funeral home and the bathrooms in it used to be the embalming rooms. Where the Baker's Square restaurant was used to be the graveyard. People say that's why every restaurant opened in that location has failed.
#111
Soldier Eating Mid-Day Meal, 1918
David 2 years ago
still better than going to Olive Garden for your pasta. LOL
Load More Replies... David 2 years ago
I don't know the official design name for that enameled metal mug he's holding but it must have been extremely popular. I bought one of these in Hong Kong about mid 80s just to have a sturdy coffee mug on the ship that wouldn't break if I dropped it. Then after the navy it ended up being on my bathroom sink where I used it until about 2017 or so when it finally got a hole rusted through in one spot. And I've seen some same / extremely similar ones for sale in the US in recent years. If that style was part of a military kit that might explain its popularity. Or maybe the reverse. Perhaps it ended up in kits due to being extremely common.
moon_magic 2 years ago
Enamel ware is still pretty popular in the UK. I have several bowls, pie plates and mugs in my kitchen right now. It only rusts if the enamel gets damaged which tends to happen when it's dropped :)
Load More Replies... HungryPanda 2 years ago
I was thinking cabbage as well..the chunk of bread and whole fish make me think it's probably not pasta
Load More Replies... #112
A Woman Reads A Book Next To The Washington Square Park Fountain In The Late 1940s
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)
Hair up off her neck, light cotton dress, and barefoot too. She’s literally one cool chick.
#113
Portrait Of Gentlemen Taken In Front Of Western Hotel, California, July 4, 1889
David 2 years ago
I'm guessing they didn't think they looked as ridiculous as they looked. If old timey stereotypes movies have taught me anything that guy in the back is the mayor. :)
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
They also all look pretty drunk, except for the kid of course.
Load More Replies... Crybabyartist 2 years ago
Pretty sure the guy on the right is Theodore Roosevelt with his shoe on fire.
#114
Woman Selling Fish From A Barrel, 1910
#115
Photo Of Two Children And A Pony With Railroad Shop In Background. Western North Carolina, 1930's
#116
Gas Station Owner With Daughter And Dog In Front Of The Station In Clear Creek
#117
Loggers With Crosscut Saw And Oxen Standing Near A Large Fir Log, Washington State, 1889
#118
A Tough Truck Carrying Logs, 1915
#120
A Family At A Tent Camp In Washington, 1861
#121
French Family Cooking Food Outside Their Caravan, France, June 1948
#122
Family Having A Picnic On The Side Of The Dirt Road, 1915
#123
Family Standing In Front Of Their Home, Tennessee, 1913
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
The boy is probably breaking them to pull. They need to be started young. You're not going to put grown steers into a harness and expect to control them. Read "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Load More Replies...
Griffy 2 years ago
Interesting how the servants are separate from the rest of the family, yet still in the picture as a show of wealth for the family.
Maudelin 2 years ago
Would you include your housekeeper and handyman in your family photos?
Load More Replies... #124
Lawmen Outside Of The City Marshall's Office In Guthrie, Oklahoma 1890s
SkyBlueandBlack 2 years ago
Most likely a posse. There's be no other reason to deputize so many people at once.
Load More Replies... Crybabyartist 2 years ago
I'm the sheriff. I'M THE SHERIFF. I'm the Sheriff. I am the Sheriff. I'm Sparti-, ermm the SHERIFF.
#125
Car Camping In The 1920s
#126
A Man And Boy Change A Tire On The Side Of A Dirt Road, 1917
Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago
Ohhhhh, fffffffuuuudddggge! Only I didn’t say “fudge”. (If you know, you know.)
Add New Image
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
I loved this! fascinating the difference in the photo's of the people with wealth and those who were poor. I hope to see more
TheReader19 2 years ago
I love looking at photos which show the 19th century; I often think about people in a hundred years time looking at pictures of us. Not going to lie though, the victorian death photos absolutely fascinates me. They're my favourite old time pictures.
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
I loved this! fascinating the difference in the photo's of the people with wealth and those who were poor. I hope to see more
TheReader19 2 years ago
I love looking at photos which show the 19th century; I often think about people in a hundred years time looking at pictures of us. Not going to lie though, the victorian death photos absolutely fascinates me. They're my favourite old time pictures.
You May Like 49 Fascinating Photos Revealing What The World’s Capitals Looked Like Way Before Modern Times 50 Victorian And Edwardian Photos That Might Change How You See The Past 50 Historical Images With Backstories You Might Not Have Known
Viktorija Strelciunaite
Mantas Kačerauskas
Ilona Baliūnaitė
Related on Bored Panda
