It’s virtually impossible to feel how fast time flies until it passes right behind us, leaving the sense it was only yesterday we had our first day at school or said ‘I Do’. Present moments sneakily turn into memories, and it’s a never-ending cycle.
But thanks to the invention of photography and people who stood behind the lens, not everything gets lost in history. People, places, events that happened years, decades and hundreds of years ago are all made immortal by the camera.
One such mesmerizing gallery is curated by the Lost In History Twitter account dedicated to sharing photos that they say “throw light on our past.” Below, we selected some of the most incredible and interesting photos shared there, so pull your seat closer!
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I read a lot of mystery books about the Orient Express, and it is described as very luxurious and beautiful. I can see now why
Some time ago, Bored Panda spoke with Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures. We found out about the cultural and societal significance of old photos, as well as the meanings behind them. It turned out that old photographs can tell us more about life in the past than you will ever learn from history books.
Amazing, rising literally from the ashes. I do hope she didn't die horribly of radiation poisoning...
I think this was the woman in that concrete walked library. She lived!
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And she's smiling... so beautiful. When you stop and think about how differently this could've turned out for the woman in this photo, the beauty of it becomes even more remarkable.
when there is an atomic bomb . . . plug your ears eyes and nose and breathe through your teeth. stay there for 48 hours do jot try to find the origin of the bomb. If is sad, but good to know these things. so happy for this woman!
I could write a very lengthy explanation as to how and why the atomic bomb was used on the Japanese. The war crimes of the Japanese committed on the Chinese which is often over shadowed by the war crimes the Nazis committed on the on the Jews is absolutely horrifying. Look up the rape of Nanking, where they slaughtered 150,000 war prisoners, murdered another 50,000 men and then raped and murdered 20,000 women and children. They did human experiments on prisoners just like the nazis. Taught their soldiers how to bayonet enemies by practicing it on live prisoners. The list goes on. Pair this with the fact that the Japanese fought to the death for every inch of land and it becomes quite clear why such weapons were used against them. Do some research.
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Im not sure about the woman in nagasaki, the woman is to happy to be the only survivor of that place
Sad we did this to other people, this picture makes me feel a bit ill and rather disappointed in us. That amazing woman's smile is the best part of this picture
If she survived the actual bombing of Nagasaki would have died a quick it depends on where she and the radiation level. It is fifty fifty
All these psycho brain rotted Americans defending war crimes, it's pathetic. They were civilians you monsters, it doesn't matter what there military did you don't target them. Japan was trying to surrender, but we dropped those bombs anyway as a means of demonstration to the Soviets, who never needed to be our enemy, but became one anyway because of our belligerent warmongering.
Japan was not trying to surrender. They were teaching school children how to fight to the death.We dropped the bombs in the hope that it would prevent an invasion with even more loss of life, especially American lives. Loss of life itself is not a war crime. What's psycho and brain rotted is thinking that America should have been 'kinder' and sacrificed it's own people
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The photographer is Yosuke Yamahata, and while he was a military photographer for the Japanese, I don't believe this woman was forced to smile for propaganda or what not. He spent the entire day documenting the after math of the bomb, and no one else is smiling in his photos. They're all so visceral and show the pain and exhaustion these people were feeling. I do think her smile seems a bit forced, but I believe it was her choice. That its more along the lines of "I've just been through hell and I'm alive and I don't know what else to do other than smile for the camera and preserve"
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She just survied the most devastating weapon ever created up until that point in history. That was a bomb shelter she was in, and it's completely destroyed. She's just relieved to be alive. And possibly in shock and doesn't know how to react other than put on a brave face. The affects of long term radiation poisoning weren't known yet, so anyone who survived had figured they were in the clear. It's eerie knowing what might have happened to her. The photographer himself died of cancer 20 years after this photo was taken. I don't know if it was an affect of radiation poisoning tho
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First and foremost, it’s important to understand that old photos affect our perception of time in unique ways. According to Lisa, they do that “by making abstract historical events visually concrete, giving us an emotional connection to eras we might not otherwise know very much about, exactly, through books or family stories.”
She gave an interesting example: “I was really taken by images of Japanese-Americans in WWII U.S. internment camps, young people protesting low wages for teachers in the Great Depression, female engineers working for the Space Race, and little kids protesting Daylight Savings Time—my own son especially appreciated that one…"
What are the cannibals going to eat? They're nothing but bones. What a horrific picture.
Another way old photos alter our perception of time is by showing that people in the past had just as rich and complex lives as we have today. Lisa explained that “we tend to assume that in the past, women were limited to work as wives and mothers, and we certainly see a number of images here celebrating women’s work in the home.”
But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. “We also see women doing all sorts of work in the public sphere as well—everything from attending school graduations and working on supercomputers to taking back the streets of postwar London and bouncing drunks out of bars,” the professor explained.
The part in Schindlers List which upsets me the most is when they are told to carefully write their names on their suitcases as they will get them back when they get off the train. You then see the suitcases being brought to the sorting areas and the contents being put into various piles like this. The fact that they gave these prisoners a glimer of hope (that their possessions would be returned to them) while knowing what was in store for them is just heartbreaking 😥
Moreover, old photographs remind us of something we tend to forget: “that people in the past have had many of the same challenges and triumphs as we have, and that we can look to them for inspiration regarding how to make sense of the present and build new futures,” Lisa concluded in this in-depth interview we had.
TIL goats like bananas. Looked into it, and in addition to hay and grains, I learned they also eat "foods like fruits, dried fruits, veggies, graham crackers, cheerios, Cheetos, and even corn chips."
... And it wasn't just Germans who were brainwashed by Nazism. Let's not forget that.
Terrible working conditions. It's literally what Zorro rescues "the disappeared ones" from in the movies.
Note: this post originally had 42 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
"The past was a different world." I forget which SciFi author said that.
Not one “Illuminating” photo of an African American. I guess we were not apart of history.
Native Americans were not represented either, but it's because there is still no change that can be described with the word "illuminating ". Maybe a pic of an indigenous school, but they were still killing kids up into the 1970's. Hardly the past
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Chool pics. Comments make me a bit angry thou. Mostly comments against forestry, nazies and old traditions. People seem to have only one and same mainstream braincell
"The past was a different world." I forget which SciFi author said that.
Not one “Illuminating” photo of an African American. I guess we were not apart of history.
Native Americans were not represented either, but it's because there is still no change that can be described with the word "illuminating ". Maybe a pic of an indigenous school, but they were still killing kids up into the 1970's. Hardly the past
Load More Replies... Chool pics. Comments make me a bit angry thou. Mostly comments against forestry, nazies and old traditions. People seem to have only one and same mainstream braincell
