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‘Lost In History’: 30 Illuminating Pictures That “Throw Light On Our Past”
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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#2
Jill Hojnacki 3 years ago
Well, bless him for helping the boy reunite with his family, at least. He’s helping him cross into East Berlin, not to escape from it.
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Lemon Beans 3 years ago
For some clarity, the boy and his family lived in East Germany, but he and his father were visiting relatives in the West the night the border was closed, making crossing illegal. But the father wanted his son to grow up with his family, so he sent him to the border where this soldier helped him cross. From what I've read, no one knows what happened to the soldier other than he was removed from his unit. Crossing the border was basically a suicide mission, and I doubt the military would be kind to any soldier, especially a low ranking one like he most likely was, who moved citizens across. I'd like to think he was simply reprimanded, but the odds of him being executed are just as likely. The soldier wasn't risking his life to make sure some kid grew up in a communist state, he did it to reunite a child with his family.
D-Goms 3 years ago
People were leaving the communist East, they were seeking refuge in WEST Germany,
MonkeyInTheMiddle 3 years ago
Wait, so was he helping the boy cross the wall to the East, the communist side, or West Germany, the not communist side?
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Jill Hojnacki 3 years ago
The photo, maybe. Gonna bet his life under Stalin was less so. He’s being helped to “escape” into East Berlin.
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LongCoolWomanInABlackDress 3 years ago
You can tell by the look at his face that he knows he's taking a huge risk helping this kid. People were shot for less
MiriPanda 3 years ago
Yes, that's where his mother was. It was the very day before crossing the border was not allowed for almost 40 years.
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Powerful Katrinka 3 years ago
Here's the whole story: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/east-german-soldier-helps-little-boy-1961/
Charles Hair 3 years ago
Sitting here inside a Hardee's fast-food restaurant in Fayetteville NC, as I open the page and begin looking at photos this photo of soldier helping boy cross Berlin wall the music inside dinning area picks up the beat and a song I haven't heard since the 1990s plays on the speakers thru out restaurant, "99 Red Balloons". I'm not grammatically knowledgeable enough to know what word that I'm looking for to explain the moment, but it was very surreal & cool To my heart and mind it was a nod from God.
Plague doctor 3 years ago (edited)
I could not agree more when the morals of the world were down he stepped up helped this poor kid in need.
Tammy Sims 3 years ago
Thank God for this soldier. Otherwise that little boy might have been separated from his family for life.
#3
Icy_Question_4977 3 years ago
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.
#6
Laura Henderson 3 years ago
Amazing, rising literally from the ashes. I do hope she didn't die horribly of radiation poisoning...
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…"
#8
Mr. Cinder 3 years ago
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.
#10
LisaMarie 3 years ago (edited)
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.
#14
Firstname Lastname 3 years ago
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."
#21
#24
Kermit the Bee 3 years ago
To the right of the chair in the centre, is allegedly a human spine
#25
Laura Henderson 3 years ago
... And it wasn't just Germans who were brainwashed by Nazism. Let's not forget that.
#28
Laura Henderson 3 years ago
Terrible working conditions. It's literally what Zorro rescues "the disappeared ones" from in the movies.
#34
HarriMissesScotland 3 years ago
Looks like a house I grew up in, in Florida. Mortgage was $63 a month. Mom worked a full time and a part-time job, my dad was a lineman for the county. 950 square feet, linoleum floors, 1 very pink and black bathroom for the 5 of us, and murderous jalousie windows. No a/c. That house is now listed for $220, 000. Not worth it.
#35
#39
Adam Zad 3 years ago (edited)
Did you know that the Golden Gate Bridge must be repainted every five years to prevent rust? But it takes five years to paint the entire bridge from end to end, so the painters, when they finish, have to cycle back to the beginning and start all over again. It's a neverending job. Talk about your job security!
#40
Mark Erwin 3 years ago
James Cameron's inspiration for the "Draw me like one of your French girls" sofa scene in Titanic
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Hypoxia Smurf 3 years ago
"The past was a different world." I forget which SciFi author said that.
Sahar Manzoor 3 years ago
Not one “Illuminating” photo of an African American. I guess we were not apart of history.
Dawnice Robinson 3 years ago
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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Lauri Yli-Viikari 3 years ago
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
Hypoxia Smurf 3 years ago
"The past was a different world." I forget which SciFi author said that.
Sahar Manzoor 3 years ago
Not one “Illuminating” photo of an African American. I guess we were not apart of history.
Dawnice Robinson 3 years ago
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... Lauri Yli-Viikari 3 years ago
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
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