43 Powerful Historical Photos That Put History Into A New Perspective
InterviewVintage photography can offer you very different perspectives of the past, even if you’re looking at familiar buildings and landmarks. The switch to black-and-white photography alone is enough to make you pay attention to different details.
‘HistoryRepeated’ is a niche online community for history, architecture, and photography enthusiasts. Its members post photos of famous and lesser-known sites from all over the globe, and provide context about them. We’ve picked out some of the most iconic and timeless images to share with you. Keep scrolling to learn something new. Meanwhile, check out Bored Panda's interview with the founder of the community, Frank!
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Erecting The Eiffel Tower (1887-1889)
In the first photo (July 18), we see that the legs were put in position with positioning and stabilizing cables until they could be mounted to the first platform with millimeter precision using hydraulic jacks, and further construction could begin
Fun fact. Originally there were two teams supposed to work on the tower. Team 1 to work from the base up, team 2 to work from the top down. Both teams should have met somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately labour disputes caused the second team to drop out.
The Lion Gate Of Mycenae (CA 1250 B.c.) On A Photograph From 1891
It was long assumed that the man leaning on the oldest monumental sculpture in Europe was the famous archaeologist Schliemann, who excavated Troy and Mycenae in the 1870s, but archival research now shows that it's a German count
"Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" : A Native Of Papuan New Guinea Aids Wounded Australian Soldier In 1942. They Were Instrumental In Guiding And Saving The Lives Of Many Australian Servicemen
Bored Panda asked Frank, the founder of 'HistoryRepeated,' about the inspiration behind the online group.
"It's just a hobby to create this for everyone," he told Bored Panda.
"There are so many unique historical places in the world, and old photos of famous places really are nice in themselves to see, but sometimes also have very unique and/or forgotten stories."
This Is The First Artificial-Lit, Underground Photo, Taken In The Catacombs In Paris By Pioneer In Photography Nadar
He used a magnesium powder exposure method, which had the risk of explosion but allowed him to reduce the shutter speed from 1 day to 20 minutes, enabling underground photography
The caption makes no sense. Magnesium powder burns very quickly. It's the original flash photography. I looked at the OP and found 'but after your question i looked to other sources and found this source claiming he in fact burned calcium carbonate. ' - that also makes no sense, because calcium carbonate is the main constituent of limestone and doesn't burn. However, calcium carbide (not carbonate) plus water generates acetylene, often used for bright lights back in the day - perhaps that's what he used. Also: 'Nadar actually used mannequins to “pose” as works down in the catacombs, rather than real people, due to how the long the process would take to photograph the location- people simply wouldn’t have been able to stand still for long enough. '
One Times Square, New York, Circa 1904 And Present
The original gothic revival building, designed by c. Eidlitz, was built as the headquarters for the New York times. The newspaper's owner, Adolph Ochs, convinced the city to rename the area, long acre square, times square in 1904
The World's Oldest Still Existing Aerial Photo Ever Taken Was Made In Boston (1860)
The area around milk street, old south meeting house & central wharf, which was later destroyed in the great fire (1872), was photographed at an altitude of 1200 feet (or 365 meters) in Samuel A. King's air balloon
"It's nice to repost them [the stories] in one central place for everyone who likes a bit of history about the famous and less famous places in the world with a great story," Frank told us.
He added that, from his perspective, great and timeless photos are those that focus on something unique or show off lesser-known facets of a place.
Building something—anything!—that stands the test of time is phenomenally difficult. The same goes for architectural legacies. The passage of time eventually wears down all things, and it is incredibly expensive to build things that last. Not to mention the costs of maintenance and repair. But it’s still possible to do with enough resources.
However, in many cases, it’s not time, but the conscious decision to demolish a building that ends its lifespan.
A Frozen "Telefontornet" At Malmskillnadsgatan 30 In Stockholm, CA 1890
This was one of the main telephone junctions in Stockholm between 1887-1913 with about 5000 telephone lines connected here and remained as a landmark until 1953
And then Malmskillnadsgatan was known for something completely different••
Quah House In Conwy, Wales In 1902 And 2016
The 16th-century house is the smallest in Great Britain, with a floor area of 3.05 x 1.8 m. In 1900, the last resident, fisherman Robert James, who was 1.91 m tall, was forced to leave when the council declared the house uninhabitable
The occupant would be best placed to determine whether a house in inhabitable or not.
William Shakespeare's Home Before The Extensive Restoration Of 1857-1864 And Now
It began, paradoxically, with the demolition of the adjacent houses of the original 16th-century house in Stratford where the famous writer was born in 1564 and was based on a 1769 engraving of the original house
According to Dezeen, most commercial buildings have a standard design life of around 50 to 60 years, “and it’s common for them to last only half that long.”
Mel Allwood, the sustainable buildings director at Arup, told Dezeen that it’s tough to predict when buildings will outlive their usefulness.
After all, a building has to have a useful function. And in some cases, it might be cheaper to tear something down than to renovate or retrofit it.
That being said, when you choose to demolish a building, you’re also destroying the architectural and cultural heritage of the location. And if whatever you build in its place ends up being destroyed just a few decades later, you’re creating a cycle of permanent demolition instead of preservation. It would be smarter to instead try to predict what functions might be needed in the future and to create buildings in such a way that it’s easier to adapt their interiors if need be.
AI Colorized Picture Of Karl Marx' Famous Picture
But did you know the photo we all know is in fact also a handmade black & white restoration of the 1875 original? The photo was selected by Friedrich Engels, who sent 12,000 copies to newspapers & organizations to promote Marx' famous "Das Kapital"
110 Years Ago [march 25, 1911] The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire In New York City
The fire takes 146 garment workers, mostly women, due to a lack of safety regulations. The public nature of this disaster led to sweeping safety reforms
100 Years Ago: With The Passage Of "Law No. 671 On Hats" On November 25, 1925
National assembly-members were required to wear European hats and the traditional fez was banned for the Turkish population. It was an attempt by the pro-european Atatürk to shift Ottoman identity more towards the west
“The very long-life building that is always raised in these circumstances is the Pantheon. The function is very basic: it’s the gathering of people in a city centre. It’s almost the lowest common denominator of what society is,” Allwood told Dezeen.
“It is fundamental that we want that material investment to have as long as possible to repay itself. But the constraint is about utility. If it stops being useful, it’s no longer paying back its investment, it’s just taking up space. And that judgement is really interesting.”
The First Known Picture Of The Pantheon In Rome (Mid 19th Century)
French painter Eugène Constant visited the city in between 1848 - 1852. He used the new method of albumen on glass plate negatives
One Of The First Photos Of Lightning Ever Taken In An Urban Environment
A lightning strike on the Eiffel tower on June 3, 1902, at 9:20 pm by photographer Gabriel Loppé. The tower itself was designed as a natural lightning rod, acting as a faraday cage, and is struck approximately 5 times per year
Istanbul, 1843. The Oldest Known Photograph Of The City, Then Called Constantinople
Is a daguerrotype panorama taken from the Beyazit lookout tower by French photographer Girault de Prangey. In the center is the Nuruosmaniye mosque, then less than 100 years old; on the left we see the hagia Sophia
Allwood explained that if she “had a magic wand that would allow [her] to predict what kind of functions we're going to use buildings for in 20 years time, 50 years time, 100 years time, [she’d] be doing something else.”
Meanwhile, as Dezeen points out, some buildings are specifically built to last as long as humanly possible.
The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, deep in the Norwegian permafrost, is one example of this. It is built in a way to last indefinitely and to withstand everything from climate change and nuclear winter to literal asteroid strikes.
Gare Montparnasse In Paris, France, Made Headlines Worldwide On October 22, 1895, When The Granville Express, A Few Minutes Late, Pulled Into The Station Too Fast And Crashed Through The Station Wall
The War Over Ukrainian Territory Actually Dates Back To The 19th Century
It is in fact the first war ever photographed. Roger Fenton took these photographs of Crimea in 1855, in which the French and British helped the Ottoman empire prevent russian power from expanding too much in central Europe
Rms Titanic Under Construction (Circa 1909-1911), In The World's Largest Shipyard, Harland & Wolff, In Belfast
Of the more than 3,000 people who worked on the world's most famous ship, which set sail on April 2, 1912, 246 were injured, 28 of whom lost arms or legs to objects such as falling steel
It was considered a fairly easy assembly with fewer accidents than normal.
And yet, Peter Söderman, the architect, told Dezeen that the building’s longevity “wasn’t that important” during the design process. However, in recent years, longevity has become a more and more important topic, as the conversation about architectural lifespans shifts.
“We have to think about buildings that they have a longer life expectancy than before. We’ve been building buildings with a 50-to-100-years perspective, but we actually should think longer than that.”
"Parliament Street From Trafalgar Square" (1839)
It is the first known photograph of London, taken by French mr. De st. Croix coming to promote a new photographic technique of mr. Daguerre in Britain. The vague figurines (because of minutes-long shutter speed) are the first Londoners to be photographed
First Known Photo Of The Forum Romanum (Rome) Shot Between 1848-1852
The famous pillars in front are the remains of the temple of Saturn. The original temple is believed to be built in the Roman kingdom, but these pillars are actually the remains of the third temple, built in 360 a.d. After a fire
Then And Now: Aachen Town Hall In Reconstruction After Allied Ww2 Raids In 1943/1944, And In 2016
In fact the early 14th century administrative center which also served as medieval prison almost collapsed but was staved off through the use of emergency beams holding the structure in place
The mayor, risking the consequences of treason, contacted the advancing Americans to surrender the city. The Americans dithered; the Wehrmacht moved in, and a lot of buildings and lives were lost.
The ‘HistoryRepeated’ online group is a fairly new addition to the Reddit family. Its curator created it nearly a year ago, in late February 2025. According to him, the community is a place for people to “discover the world’s historic gems,” all from the comfort of their couch.
He notes that the group doesn't just cover the history of famous world historic sites, but also lesser-known locations as well.
In The Very First Photograph Of The Parthenon In Athens, Taken Almost 200 Years Ago In 1839
An observant eye will notice an Ottoman mosque in its center. It was demolished immediately after Greece gained independence from the ottomans in 1843 to showcase the idealized classical Greek identity again
The Rms Titanic On April 11, 1912, In Queenstown, Ireland, Just Before Crossing The Atlantic Ocean
The photographer was Jesuit father Francis Browne, who was forced to disembark thanks to a telegram from his superior with the simple message: "Get off that ship," which saved his life
That's nonsense. It was a planned family trip. Source;: my step grandmother, who was the little girl on the trip.
Keizersgracht Amsterdam 1857 During The Oldest Known Photoshoot Of Typical Dutch Canal Houses
British photographer Benjamin Turner had to stop mid-shoot, for which he had come from London, when part of his equipment fell into the water due to pushy onlookers who had never seen photography before
The look he gave them when he turned around because of what they did. Ooh!
The moderator asks all the members of ‘HistoryRepeated’ to focus on history and historic places: “Opinions about it based on political views or modern-day cultural climate can be placed in other subs.”
What’s more, the discussions should be based on historical, scientific, architectural, and archeological facts, not alternative theories.
Cologne Cathedral Is A Gothic Cathedral, But This Is Actually A 1855 Photo Of The Church In Construction
Since 1528 Building Was Stopped Because Of A Lack Of Interest And Money, But It Was Started Again In 1824 Using The Original Drawings. The Dome Was Finished In 1880
Cologne (Köln) Cathedral hasn't got a dome. 'Domes' is a form of the German word 'Dom', meaning cathedral.
Not Everyone Knows The Immense Complexity Of The Colosseum's Hypogeum Under Its Wooden Floor
Dating back to the 1st century, it was a network of passageways with ingenious elevators, stairs and trapdoors to allow animals and soldiers to enter the arena at unexpected moments for spectacular effects
La Seine Seen From The Pont Neuf In Paris, CA. 1836–1839
This picture by Daguerre is less famous than his 1838 photo of the first people ever captured on the Boulevard du Temple because the date is less certain, but two people appear to be lying to the left of the statue, so it's possible this is in fact older
Once you’re done scrolling through these photos, share your thoughts in the comments down below, Pandas. Which of these buildings impressed you the most and why? What is the most awe-inspiring historic site that you’ve personally seen? What, for you personally, are the signs of a truly timeless and iconic photo? What's your favorite historic period? We’d like to hear your insights.
The First Photograph Of Lower Yellowstone Falls Taken In 1871, Colorized
The 94-meter-high waterfall is the largest and most famous in the park. The photo, taken by William Henry Jackson, was taken from the location of the now-famous lookout point, before it was given that name in 1880
Then & Now: One Of The World's First Public Urinals Next To The Église Saint-Laurent In Paris Photographed In 1865
The very first were installed here in 1830 but were quickly destroyed during the French revolution. This is one of 400 cast iron urinals installed in 1834 when peace was restored
Auschwitz Camp Guards On A Day Trip (1944), It's Just Astounding To Look At
The Dog Tags Of 58,307 Us Soldiers Lost During The Vietnam War At The Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago
Indian School, Pine Ridge, SD, 1881. Lakota Sioux Camped Nearby To Be Close To Their Children
A Poor Woman And Child Gleaning (Picking Up The Crops Left Behind After Harvest). Pajala, Sweden In 1918
Then & Now: Great Sphinx Of Giza In December 1849, 75 Years Before The Imposing
20-meter-high statue was finally excavated by Émile Baraize between 1925 and 1936. The photo was taken by inexperienced photographer Maxime du Camp during his trip to Egypt with the then-unknown writer Gustave Flaubert
Aerial Photo Of The Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, 1930) In Construction
Construction of Gaudí's masterpiece is planned to be completed in 2026. The church is the most visited church besides saint peter's in Rome, and will be the highest in the world with its tower of Jesus reaching 172.5 meters
E(Asy) Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Known From Band Of Brothers)
Having a well-earned rest after capturing Hitler's Eagle's nest in Berchtesgaden, Bavarian alps, May 1945. The bunker complex was completed in 1938 for 30 million reichsmark which equals around 163 million dollars today
Amsterdam's Dam Square In The 19th Century With Statue "De Eendracht" (The Unity) Commemorating The Ten Days' Campaign Against Belgium
In the background to the right, instead of the Bijenkorf, we see the former Zocher stock exchange
Construction Of The Eiffel Tower In 1888 For The 1889 World Fair
Not Eiffel himself, but structural engineer Maurice Koechlin who worked for Eiffels company, came up with this construction idea which was first highly criticized and not expected to be feasible
Essentially they put all four legs in sand pits and slowly let the sand out to match them together.
Joe Arridy (Right), Nicknamed "Happiest Prisoner On Death Row"
Giving his toy trains to another inmate (left) before he is taken to the gas chamber. Wrongfully accused of [crime], Joe had an IQ of 46, asked for ice cream as his last meal and was reportedly smiling while being led to the chamber-1939
If ever you need an argument against the death penalty, this is one of the strongest. Wrongfully convicted, never understanding what was being done to him - and k!lled by the state for a crime committed by someone else.
A Red Army Veteran On The Anniversary Of The Great Patriotic War, 1966
Irish Girl Mocking A British Soldier For His Height, Derry, Northern Ireland (1972)
Derry, 1972: the year of 'Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, a massacre on 30 January 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, in Northern Ireland.' Going by his hat, the soldier looks to be from a Scots regiment.
Tereska Adwentowska, A Polish Girl Who Grew Up In Warsaw During Wwii, Draws A Picture Of "Home" While Living In A Residence For Disturbed Children - Warsaw, 1948
Original And Colorized: Us President Lincoln Visits Antietam On October 3, 1862
The bloodiest battle in American history had just taken place here on September 17, with more than 23,000 casualties, and Lincoln visited personal friend and general John A. Mcclernand (right) to insist on taking action
Not correct though - when Lincoln came to the battlefield he visited General McClellan. His friend General McClernand (shown in the picture) accompanied Lincoln but had nothing to do with fight or army there - he had a command in the west and was on leave of absence to Washington.
So early, back to 1838 and 1839, perhaps even 1836. Amazing historical and geographical archive.
So early, back to 1838 and 1839, perhaps even 1836. Amazing historical and geographical archive.
