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...
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."
It wasn’t a house. It was basically a marketing ploy by the local forest industry, showing off the Pacific Northwest’s “limitless” timber supply. After the Expo, it was mostly neglected until it burned to the ground 60 years later. So not only did it waste a tremendous amount of old growth trees for its initial purpose, but they didn’t even bother reusing said old growth. It was a huge waste. https://www.vintag.es/2021/10/forestry-building.html?m=1
Trees are lovely and it hurts my heart to know that we are hurting them-inevitably and destructively- I am happy to have enjoyed their presence at my wise age.
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Boo hoo the poor trees. Now sit back in your house made of wood in your chair made of wood.
Thank you! I can't tell if people who leave those comments are for real or if they do it so they can be a part of this weird clique. You touch natural materials everyday...most likely every time you use the bathroom.
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So, for all the "for shame, the trees!" people...here's a story. I had a great-aunt, named Phyllis. She, and a friend, bought some land in the Sierra Mtns, out in California, & they built their own log cabin, including cutting down the trees, stripping the bark, etc. When I was about 11 or 12 years old, my whole family went out to California to all see where the grandparents were from, and part of the time, we spend with her. She had an outhouse, as well as an I door toilet, but we were only to flush the toilet a couple of times, when at capacity, for water conservation. She had an indoor claw tub, for the winters, but an outdoor shower, for all other times. She had a self-sustaining garden, and solar panels. She had a phone she would only turn on at a certain designated time, every evening, so people could contact her if they needed. That place was absolutely amazing. The cabin was two stories. And she was the greatest conservation advocate I ever met.
It's log, it's log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood. It's log, it's log, it's better then bad, it's good
It fits on your back, it's great for a snack, it's log, log, log!
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Didn't work out so well.... https://www.vintag.es/2021/10/forestry-building.html
Incredible building. You can see more pictures of it, inside and out, including the exhibiting it held here:https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/world-largest-log-cabin-portland/
This is what 5 year old me envisioned making with my Lincoln logs. The result was far less impressive :(
... 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
