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!
This post may include affiliate links.
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."
... And it wasn't just Germans who were brainwashed by Nazism. Let's not forget that.
Don't forget the Americans who are doing everything in their power to make America fascist now.
Load More Replies...
Speaking of nazis: How many trump supporters does it take to change a light bulb? None. Trump tells them it's been changed and they all stand around in the dark and cheer.
Ok, that's a good one! Upvote from a US citizen who is happy to see the rotten orange go. *applause*
Load More Replies...
Don't forget, the Nazis actually got their concept of ethnic purity from the good ol' American Eugenics movement. In fact, enforced, surgical sterilization in Nazi Germany was inspired by California, who was the leader in forced sterilization in the early 20th century, making sure the poor, the "enfeebled", and all those deemed "unfit", such as Native American, Mexican, African American, and immigrant women, didn't dilute the pure Nordic, Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon lineage of the state. 🙄
Here is an interesting read that corroborates the views that America and Germany shared through mutual organizations the Eugenics views but Germany did not get their playbook from America. It was shown that Germany was pro eugenics after WWI and America didn't have any written literature on Eugenics until many years after before WWII. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1299061/
Load More Replies... 
People that get a hard on looking at this picture probably also still have confederate flags in/on their houses, clothes, and/or bodies.
It was very unfortunate how many Hitler brainwashed throughout his career. He was a very evil man to say the least.
I bet Charles Lindbergh was in attendance. He was a Nazi sympathizer until it became unpopular.
We must be very careful; We are not that far off: We MUST NOT FORGET - MILLIONS OF LIVES WERE SNUFFED OUT. Because of their Lineage. Religion, Heritage: Just Because /only because they were Jewish: that my Friends is sooooo Wrong.
This puts my stomach in knots. I'm from New York and I'm Jewish and I always saw New York as a safer place for Jews because the people were more progressive. Seeing this takes away a little bit of that for me. Knowing I stood there at Madison square garden in the same place these vile creatures were...
I'm going to add in that most of the world, especially America who was trying to distance themselves from things, did not know the full extent of what was happening. This was really a rally for the thinking of the socialist party, which had many positive ideas for workers back then. Again, everything is about actually knowing history.
It is sad that the good men in history don't go down the way they should, only the men like Hitler who were the scourge of men go down in history as making the biggest impacts. During Hitler's reign in Germany he not only got through to the United kingdoms in England but to America where he started to brainwash Americans to believe in the Aryan race. Which is lasted to this day in the form of the neo-nazis.
This picture presents a very good argument for learning history, but from proper books and not just googling.
These peoples grandkids and kids went on to be Trump supporters
He lives rent free in your head.. poor thing.
Load More Replies...
Remember we were in support until pearl harbor. And boy scouts uesd to be called hitlers youth program
Whats the dif between a trump raily and a nazis one ? One of the learders was smart
You are definitely not smart, learn how to spell before you criticize.
Load More Replies...
cool 20,000 n****** all together at once pretty much maybe give a few or take that we're just there to f****** see what kind of nigradim that was going down f****** hateful piece of s****where's the f****** wave when you need it f****** whitewash
My guess is that they would be today's leftist fascists. If you disagree with them then they will destroy your life.
Oh shut up.. people could say the same for you, y'know.
Load More Replies...
what even? Is your whole personality hating a branch of government? When people disagree with you it's different... But of course you're always right, aren't you?
Load More Replies...
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
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
"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
