50 Important Historical Photos That Might Change Your Perspective On Things, As Shared By This Facebook Page
Ever since the invention of the camera in the early 1800s, photographers have documented everything, from wars and protest marches to scientific discoveries, and even space landings, allowing everyone to, in a way, "attend" these special events.
The Facebook page 'Old Photographs' has collected a wide selection of such interesting historical moments—big and small. So let's take a look at some of its top posts, after all, chances are, each of us will find something that will help us to see the past in a new light.
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On 27 January 1945 was the liberation of Auschwitz. To forget would be to say these faces, the faces of millions of others didn't matter. Never forget. Teach the children to remember.
Some of the survivors reunited in 2005. You can click on their names to get more of their stories and Gabi Neumann's who did extensive research including giving a background on the picture which included "Q: Tell me about the famous photograph in which you appear. A: The picture was taken a few days after liberation. I don’t remember exactly how many. It is a completely staged photograph. The Russians walked around the blocks calling on us to be photographed. My sister didn’t want to be photographed, so she isn’t in the picture. I was curious, and allowed my picture to be taken. You can see that they dressed us in prisoner uniforms that were a few sizes too big for us. Underneath the prisoner uniforms we wore the rags that we had. But because of this picture, I found my family. The Russians took my details and that’s how my mother found my sister and me later on." https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/through-the-lens/auschwitz-child-survivors.asp
Just one of the guys. (WWII)
Laughter has sounded the same throughout generations and languages.
(Unidentified woman and child, Jemez Pueblo New Mexico, by Jesse Nusbaum)
Some of our favorite old photographs are merely everyday people in everyday life.
A family portrait. Gainesville, Florida - 1900.
Source: State Library and Archives of Florida
This picture circa 1900s shows knife grinders also called ventres jaunes (‘yellow stomachs’ referring to the yellow dust released by the grinding wheel). By laying face down, these yellow stomachs would save their backs from being hunched over all day. Workers were encourage to bring their dogs to not only keep them company but to act as heaters to keep them warm by having the dogs lie on their legs.
(Photo is from the web-site of, French knife maker, Claude Dozorme - ” The Wolf ”).
A very moving caption:
"This is a mass burial at sea, on the USS Intrepid in 1944 following a kamikaze attack. I've never seen this photo, and I figure most of you probably haven't either. I posted so people can see, and remember the incredible sacrifices made on our behalf."
There is modern beauty in this photograph of Lota Cheek taken 99 years ago.
Animals bring a type of joy not found in other ways.
When do we gain the inhibitions not present in our youth?
Omg the amount of times we all nearly died during our childhoods, it'll never be the same again, leaving home on your own/with friends in the early morning, someone's dog would be part of the gang, not coming home until dinner time and literally no contact with anyone's parents all day lol. Fantastic photo
Timeless photography looks as beautiful now as it did when it was taken.
Formal portraits rarely featured smiles, but they can be found in photographs of daily life during this period. (1912, South Carolina.)
A routine repair.
Dressed to impress. (1908)
Who loved jumping off? (Even though mom told you not to.)
Is it possible the architects had this in mind when they designed Grand Central Station? (1934)
She was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke, but you would know her as the Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz".
104 years ago this fountain in Detroit, Michigan was left running allowing it to build layer upon layer in to this 30 foot icy spectacle.
This 1931 photograph captures the spirit of the season as Santa delivers presents to the children of an adoption home in London.
A girl, a dog, a mule. From the 1921 silent film "Through the Back Door" staring Mary Pickford.
1937: when even ice skating was done in a suit.
March 1938: 70-year-old Mrs Elizabeth Arnold, believed to be England's only woman blacksmith, shoes a horse outside the 400-year-old forge in Walmer, Kent. (Photo by Fox Photos).
They wear shoes and clothes with holes and dirt upon their faces, yet they are absolutely perfect. (1936)
Fred Messer's life spanned three centuries. He was born in 1792, 16 years after the United States became a counrty and lived to see automobiles roll along roads, dying in 1907. (North Carolina.)
Two innocent souls from days long ago.
Doggie is straight chillin... Little girl is not so sure lol
A woman on a mission with her baguette and six bottles of wine.
(Paris 1945 - by Branson Decou)
How homework was done before google.
I remember the days, although for me it was 90's s and early 00's :D
An old photograph with a funny twist in today’s context.
It took more than 15 years to take the Statue of Liberty from concept to reality. Construction is pictured here in 1884, less than two years before she was completed.
And it took only one presidential mandate to throw liberty into the gutter and revamp racism, bigotry, vandalism, and xenophobia.
1890s Walmart. So many great details inside this general store. It was a time when you knew your grocer and they knew you. We have more, but we in some ways have less.
When I was still in elementary school we moved from a decent size city to a very very rural town. It was like we had wound the clock back 30 years. It was a major culture shock.It had one chain fast food place and all the other ones were mom and pop joints.It had at that time the only bar I'd ever seen. It had one pharmacy which was mom and pop. And the gas station was the same way. The coolest thing about the whole town was the general store. It was like you'd see in movies. They made keys the old fashion way. If you wanted paint it had to be whatever color was in the can because they didn't mix custom colors. They had all types of gardening tools, seeds, fertilizer made from local chicken farm poop, and bee keeping supplies. It was one of the last stores that sold old style shotguns and rifles for hunting. And lastly, it had one of those old time rolling ladders that rode on a track mounted to the ceiling to get to the stuff on the shelves that went from floor to ceiling. Good times.
Be thankful for what you have.
Be thankful for one another.
This caption is beyond inappropriate. The photo is of street orphans who have no one living that can take care of them. There was a movement at the time in art including painting and photography to make the public aware of their plight. They probably had not eaten in days. No telling what happened to their parents. It was meant to teach empathy.
Its not about where you are, its who you're with. (1945)
Rush hour in Chicago didn’t look any better 104 years ago.
Isn't it interesting that we meet some of the best friends we ever have within the first years of our lives.
(Photo by Edouard Boubat. Paris, 1952.)
I had an entirely different youth than suggested. Lot of bullying. No one I would consider a friend until middle school when I found the nerds.
The less you have, the more you appreciate what you do have.
(Western North Carolina 1914-1917, from the William A. Barnhill Collection.)
My grandchild still hug chicken in todays world. They are the best pets....
There’s nothing quite like getting hand delivered mail. (1900)
Today, be thankful.
(Arizona migrant family, 1940.)
These captions are giving me the shits. Yes we should be thankful, but we shouldn't be using real people in pain and poverty to make ourselves feel better about our own lives.
H.D. McCracken, a self-proclaimed "creative Texan," built this wooden contraption and mounted it to a Model T chassis. He and his wife took this converted camper across the country, going wherever they pleased and stopping wherever they wished. The McCrackens were two of many Americans who answered the call of the open road following World War I.
(1916 Ford Model T, photograph taken 1921.)
She was beautiful and extremely talented. But more importantly she was a model human being - kind, hard working, warm, humorous, generous, and a strong confident woman who carried herself with grace, dignity and decency. The world lost her 7 years ago. Maureen O’Hara, May your kind be held in the highest esteem by generations to come.
Viola LaLonde and Elizabeth Van Tuyl pose beside a Ford automobile before making their cross-country drive from Washington, DC to San Francisco. (June, 1922.) In a time before sophisticated freeways, staggered convenience stations and gps, this must have been a wild adventure for these two young girls.
A moment of daily life in Whitby, England otherwise forgotten, recorded forever.
![Women Bootleggers And The Tools Of Their Trade. [prohibition - 1920 To 1933.]](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/62a85cb28e102_220236851_4455378977845466_1249660231395024665_n__700.jpg "Women Bootleggers And The Tools Of Their Trade. [prohibition - 1920 To 1933.]")
Women bootleggers and the tools of their trade. [Prohibition - 1920 to 1933.]
The beautiful hair, textiles, and accessories of Miss Lily Elsie. (1912)
1908 fashion captured by Horace W. Nicholls.
Dear Veterans,
Thank you!
You can thank injured veterans by ensuring that their mental and physical health is prioritised, and that they have adequate financial support if they need it to look after their families.
DID YOU KNOW....
...the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls was a woman?
...and that she did it on her 63rd birthday?
Upon surviving, Annie Edson Taylor was quoted as saying:
"If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat... I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall."
She lived another 20 years dying at the age of 83.
Alfred Buckham is considered the pioneer of aerial photography. Pictures like this view of Edinburgh in 1920 are as impressive as his record of surviving 9 crashes. Most of his images were taken standing up, as he was quoted: "If one's right leg is tied to the seat with a scarf or a piece of rope, it is possible to work in perfect security."
Interior shots typically include many details that tell the story of daily life. This one takes us back to the 1860s.
Can you imagine moving and entire house....using horses?
(San Francisco, 1908)
A nostalgic look at Christmas preparations in London, 1915.
This 1936 photograph comes with a very heavy caption:
"One-room hut housing a family of nine built on the chassis of an abandoned Ford in a field between Camden and Bruceton, Tennessee, near the river."
An immigrant family at New York's Ellis Island about to embark on the chase of their dreams. So many Americans can connect with this. This could be anyone's ancestors standing there.
My great grandfather and his family came through Ellis Island from Ukraine in 1899, He was born in Kyiv in 1872. I was born in San Francisco exactly 100 years later.
New York in the midst of the 1888 blizzard. 50 inches of snow fell over a three day period with drifts over 40 feet that covered houses. So singular it its severity, it was called the Great Blizzard of 1888.
A quiet moment of rest in the heart of the great depression (library of congress)
Rest In Peace, Hank Aaron.
From humble beginnings he broke barriers and Major League Baseball records - all with humility and a mild mannered grace rarely found among the high profilers after him.
One of the classiest men to ever set foot on a baseball field. He was a terrific ambassador for the game. I still consider him a home run king.
Nessim Menashe in front of his new and secondhand shoe store in Northwest Portland, which operated until 1921. Circa 1916.
Courtesy Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
Fetching groceries with mom meant dressing the part too on this day. (1940s)
Just married, 1931.
Paul Newman. Born in1925, in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Woodstock in Bethel, New York.
The surprising sense of community that enveloped these three days still amazes me.
It takes so very little to have a reason to smile. As we are a week into the month of November, let's remember to truly be thankful.
Just let the picture speak for itself. These forced captions are asinine and thoughtless.
A railroad track inspector assisted by man’s best coworker.
The early days of the selfie. (1900)
Youth lasts forever...until it's gone. Hold on to your memories in your heart, and if you're lucky, in photographs. (1943)
“Not taking a risk is a risk. That's how I see it.” -Robert Redford
Bourbon Street and Ursulines Avenue circa 1925. “New Orleans organ grinder.”
by Arnold Genthe.
There’s always a guy watching with his hands in his pockets probably saying “ now I would have done it like this “
Construction of New York’s iconic flatiron building, 1902.
I work in the city and loved to walk by during lunch. Such a cool building. Oh and I worked in the Empire State Building at the time.
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than strolling around the great outdoors with people that you love? Maybe even stop along the way and snap a few photos. "Alright, let's take a silly one!". Just know that when you do, you are in good company of all the fun loving folks of the past.
Shrewsbury, MO, around 1945.
1940 Ford Woody Wagon.
The tires were bald because nearly ALL tires were worn out by the end of WWII. They were rationed along with gasoline, butter, shoes, sugar, coffee and more.
Photo privately held.
Today's reason to be thankful: you're not doing your laundry on the street by hand with water from a hydrant during a war. (1945, Berlin, Germany)
My grandma was born back then and told me, they had to do their laundry like this until she was an adult and had children (they had a well in the yard, available for quite a few houses around). And even when she got a washing machine and a bathtub in their rented flat, water (and living) was so expensive that they only had one bathing/washing day per week - like until my mum was a late teenager, I think.
Thanks to photographers of the past, we can view places like the Hexagon House Hotel which was built in 1895 and dismantled in 1959 for its building materials. (Mineral Wells, Texas.)
The 20s are just days away!
In July of 1936, Arthur Rothstein took this photograph near Missoula, Montana. He included the following:
"Vernon Evans (with his family) of Lemmon, South Dakota. Leaving grasshopper-ridden and drought-stricken area for a new start in Oregon or Washington. Expects to arrive at Yakima in time for hop picking. Live in tent. Makes about two hundred miles a day in Model T Ford."
Drive on, Vernon. Drive on!
Chillicothe, Ohio in 1940. Photo by Arthur Rothstein.
Here's to the moms that do it all. (1955)
Title: Ozark Mountains, Missouri.
1940 by John Vachon
I love the one on the Right holding the baby. Just so securely and very content!
A look in to a 1914 kitchen and rib roast enjoyed 107 years ago.
Can you imagine how hot that kitchen must've been in the summer? I'll wonder if that stove burned coal.
The locals hang out on the portch of the Crossroads store. (Sprott, Alabama. 1935 or 1936) by Walker Evans.
Planes fly between the towers and pedestrians cross as part of the celebration of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in May of 1937.
Their piece of the American Dream.
"They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it." - George Carlin
Headlines were made when they were built. The world changed when they came down.
Never forget.
(Photo: 1969)
I worked at the WTC during reconstruction. Respect, Remember, Rebuild
We have all heard the negative comments on depression era photos. Yes the times were hard, that's a given. But, instead of the first impression comments, can we all look deeper? What about the smiles you can almost see? Do you remember what dusty planks feel like on bare feet? The dull "thud thud" of the dasher in the churn and the way it changes as the butter makes. What kind of bread do you think it will go on? Biscuits? Or maybe hot golden cornbread, made with coarse ground meal and a hint of sweetness. Melting and swirling in a pool of thick sticky molasses until it's the color of honey. After the last crumb is gone, running the kids back off to play in the shade of the yard while the women clean up and chat. The hardships are always the first to be seen, but if we just dig deeper, what memories lie just beneath the surface?
Happy Mother's Day to all the irreplaceable moms out there. To be loved by mom is to be given the world.
(Photo date, 1900)
In the cold, late winter months when it seems like spring will never come again, nothing can feel better than opening a jar of last summers produce. All of the hard work showcased on rough board shelves deep back in a basement or cellar. Do you remember this? Perhaps your mother, or grandmother working all summer long to insure well stocked shelves for the winter. The certain feel of the cool air as you went down to fetch a certain jar. Peaches, green beans, tomatoes and many others. What memories does this picture bring back for you?
I love canning. I know what's in my food and can see my food security. Learned from Grandma and passed down to niece.
No batteries, WiFi, passwords or subscriptions required. Just real world fun.
“Daughter of white tobacco sharecropper at country store. Person County, North Carolina.”
By Dorothea Lange - July, 1939.
And the black lady sitting on the porch. Some places in the south would not allow that.
A Santa sighting over main street captured in 1940.
Do-it-yourself toy horse. (1890s)
“Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”
-Oscar Wilde
How many people can remember the familiar sound of a windlass clunking down into a well? The first cool sip of water when it was brought up in that trusty bucket. Drank from a dipper, a well dinged and bent metal cup (that just perhaps used to be a Vienna sausage can) or maybe chipped old cup whose handle had long since departed. Whole farms and families depended on these wells, so maybe that is why they still hold such a spot in memory.
My grandparents still used a well to water the livestock well into the 1970's. The pitcher pump in the kitchen was there until they moved.
"Hanging out" in 1948.
Saddle shoes! I had a few pairs. Difficult to polish without getting the black on the white and the white on the black.
A camping car at the Motor Show, Olympia, showing how the inside can be adjusted to make a bed. Built by A. C. Penman Ltd of Dumfries. 17th October 1929.
Learning practical home skills took on a more necessary meaning in 1910.
"A friend is a second self." -Aristotle
(Photo: Paris, 1934)
An aerial view of New York City 90 years ago.
The world has lost one of its truly great actors. With too many film and stage credits to begin to list, from a career spanning seven decades, Christopher Plummer will always be remembered. A personal favorite is his performance as Captain Von Trapp from The Sound of Music, which ironically he did not like and considered his co-star the only redeeming feature of the movie. Versatile, handsome, and all around talented. Rest in peace. Christopher Plummer 1929-2021
When the little store was your favorite store. (Lincoln, Vermont, 1940.)
What was once a luxury, would now be considered an inconvenience. What would she say if we told her it can now be carried in our pockets?
So much can be said for education as it was. (1890, South Dakota)
Delivery of beautiful brand new Fords.
This would have been so much better without those ridiculous (and sometimes insulting) captions.
Like seriously. We get it. We’ve all heard it a billion times now. Phone bad, internet bad, Nikola Tesla was a witch. Now shut the hell up for once and let us enjoy these fascinating historic photos.
Load More Replies...
Loved these beautiful old photos. They give a person a feel for the time they were taken.
This would have been so much better without those ridiculous (and sometimes insulting) captions.
Like seriously. We get it. We’ve all heard it a billion times now. Phone bad, internet bad, Nikola Tesla was a witch. Now shut the hell up for once and let us enjoy these fascinating historic photos.
Load More Replies... Loved these beautiful old photos. They give a person a feel for the time they were taken.
