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With all the special effects, makeup, and technology we have today, it’s easy to create an unsettling photo.
But somehow, modern images rarely feel as chilling as the ones from the past. There’s something about the grainy black-and-white film, the stiff poses, and the haunted expressions that makes these old photographs feel darker and more mysterious.
It almost feels like you’ve stumbled onto something you shouldn’t see. But you can’t help yourself.
So don’t—below, you’ll find a glimpse into that past, one that might make you want to keep the lights on while you scroll. Enjoy the spine tingles.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
British Soldiers After Their Release From Japanese Captivity In Singapore, 1945
Mike F 5 months ago
With what they had been through they deserve their tea.
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Margaret H 5 months ago
Yes, they are. One of them is an uncle of a boy I went to school with.
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Barbara Ryan 2 months ago
So happy they were freed. No one should ever experience what they did.
amy lee 4 months ago
William Mundy a British pow in changi managed to catch bees and used the honey to make salves to prevent infections as the hospital had no supplies. He trained all the other pows how to bee keep and at least one pow ended up bee farming in Australia. He was a pretty incredible bloke.
michelle neugebauer 5 months ago
Where is the humanity? It’s so hard to know humans can’t treat other humans humanely!
KC Lancaster 5 months ago
The incredible tales of survival of these men under some of the worst prisoner conditions are simply amazing.
RELATED:
#2
Jewish Children Walking Towards The Gas Chambers
Shaun Coleman 5 months ago
It happened. These photos must be seen so it cannot be forgotten.
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Leg less In Minneapolis 5 months ago
Most folks are saying I don’t want to see it. Well, look closely and say a prayer because my Polish family had to this, 57 people in and only one came out. It hits different when you know some of the victims
Auntriarch 5 months ago
I was in a package trip to Poland which included a visit to Auschwitz. I thought about not going, because I know about it so why go there. Then in the morning of the visit I thought, I can go there and then walk out, I will go there to honour the people who couldn't walk out.
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Multa Nocte 5 months ago
Yet BP will censor the world Holocaust unless you engage in some manoeuvring to bypass the censors.
John Dilligaf 5 months ago
We said "Never Again" and yet it keeps happening again and again and again
MontanaMariner 5 months ago
As one generation of deniers become worm food, another generation becomes deniers. Human history is full of humans being terrible to other humans. It can't be hidden or forgotten. I'd rather see these images of horror than the same 19 memes that are posted here on even days. Worship who you want, believe what you want, but STOP KÏLLING CHILDREN!!!
MygrandsonscallmeNia 4 months ago
What really kills me is: there's people out there trying to prove, the H*******t never happened! I suppose, they don't want to face something like this could happen?
Just because Photoshop didn’t exist back then doesn’t mean early photographers couldn’t get creative. In fact, they found plenty of ways to manipulate photos without any tech, relying on chemistry and careful handiwork.
As a result, their efforts produced images that were beautiful, strange, or downright scary, depending on what the photographer was aiming for.
#3
With Her Brother On Her Back A War Weary Korean Girl Tiredly Trudges By A Stalled M-26 Tank, Korea, 1951
Shortstuff 5 months ago
War is a waste of life. As long as men are in power, there will never be peace.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Does it matter? They are both clearly suffering horribly, no matter WHAT their relationship is. Look at their expressions. Cripes.
Load More Replies... #4
Runaway S***e Peter, Exposing His Severely Whipped Back
Joe Reaves 5 months ago
Including the f*****g censorship in the title. He had to live through it but we can't even say the word in case it upsets the advertisers.
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Lara Verne 5 months ago
S l a v e. Stop censoring it,, it's disrespectful towards people who were enslaved.
Vinnie 5 months ago
This image helped promote the cause of abolishing slavery by showing the consequences of treating people like chattel.
Cheryl Cobb 5 months ago
Perhaps, we know they were treated like animals, no! Animals were treated much, much better! Those people enjoyed treating Slaves exactly like this! Even worse! Throwing them into boiling water, killing, and raping women, molesting children. THEY enjoyed it
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Nicole Weymann 5 months ago
To quote Terry Pratchett: "Evil starts when you begin to treat people as things". GNU, sir Pterry
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FABULOUS1 5 months ago
They wouldnt care, they find joy in the suffering of others. Especially if its a person of color being dehumanized.
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One popular technique in the mid-19th century was hand-tinting black-and-white daguerreotype and carte de visite photographs.
Daguerreotypes, invented in 1839, used images on silver-plated copper and became widely popular during the Civil War era. If you’ve ever seen old photos with faded color, like the ones here, that’s how they were made.
#5
If You Ever Wondered How The American Buffalo Could Go From 30,000,000 To 300 In 50 Years, Pictures Like This May Give Some Idea (Buffalo Skulls)
Vinnie 5 months ago
Decimating bison was also part of a starvation campaign against Indigenous people.
Panda Cat 2 months ago
That’s more than decimating. Decimating is kılling 1 out of 10. That probably would have been survivable.
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Karen Menard 5 months ago
And the only reason for it was that by killing all the buffalo Indians would starve and the government could take more of their land.
KC Lancaster 5 months ago
You're forgetting the Railroad Barons. To the impossibly rich, the herds of Bison were a menace. Laying expensive rails across the plains with freed slaave\immigrant labor was "expensive" and the trains couldn't arrive on time because the massive herds sometimes took days to pass. Having guns fired in front of the train to spit a herd was often slow going, depending on the "cow catcher" to push any dead bison off the track if needed. So they encouraged any passengers riding through the plains to fire rifles from their seats into the thick herds to "add excitement" to their journey.
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Celtic Pirate Queen 5 months ago
I was fascinated by the American Indians in grade school. I read everything I could get my hands on. The one thing I remember most (after seeing this atrocity) was that the Indians NEVER took more than they could use - AND they used EVERYTHING! From the hide, to the meat to the bones. Nothing was wasted. This picture makes me absolutely sick. What a f*cking waste.
Vinnie 2 months ago
Spirituality comes into play. Animals are seen as sacrificing their lives and should be accorded respect. A Mi'kmaq man from Nova Scotia (in Canada) explained "Not using everything is disrespectful to the animal." I also read of a hunter in northern Ontario expressing gratitude thus: "The Creator put a moose in my path."
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Aim 4 months ago
The worst part is they killed them and wasted virtually every part of them just to upset the native americans at the time. People are f'ed up
Panda Cat 2 months ago
Stalin did that during the Holodomor in Ukraine before WWII. Crops were grown, harvested, bagged, and placed at train stations to mold.
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Teresita Mohammed 5 months ago
The white settlers did it so the natives would have nothing to eat! They were paid by the gov. for every buffalo they killed!!!
Kimberly Lorton 3 months ago
So wrong. And they just left the carcasses there where they lay. Not even used for food. Or fur.
MAKtheknife 4 months ago
I do not like this picture of wanton waste, even though I understand they were used as fertilizer. Shame on you white guys!
#6
Patient Brutally Restrained In A Mental Institution, France Circa 1900
Sue User 5 months ago
She may not have even needed help. Could have been there because her husband found her " willful".
Load More Replies... Lil be lil 5 months ago
You didn't have to be 'insane' to be committed. Your husband could have you committed very easily. And also that happened to be the only legit way for a Catholic to 'divorce'. (Annulment)
Jerome Lenovo 5 months ago (edited)
Not in France ------------- Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Nellie Bly.
🤣🤣🤣 (Me while reading bp) 5 months ago
very sad how mentally ill people used to be treated (back when society didn't know any better). In the UK we used to sell tickets so people could come for a day trip and stare and laugh at the mentally ill. Very gad these days are over
#7
Conrad Veidt In His Role As Gwynplaine In The 1928 Film "The Man Who Laughs"
In time, albumen prints, including cartes de visite and cabinet cards, became a go-to for photographers. The paper base provided a steady surface that made hand-coloring far easier than working with daguerreotypes.
Take, for example, these hand-colored albumen prints from late 19th-century Japan showing sumo wrestlers, women in kimonos, and even a man with a full back tattoo.
#8
Horrifying (And Nearly Fatal) Facial Injuries To A German Soldier In World War I (1914-1918)
G A 5 months ago (edited)
Immediately Post WWI was by necessity a time of pioneering plastic surgery to help these guys reenter society and not be hidden away as a lot of them were still very young.
Mindy Porter 3 months ago
World War I & the war in Afghanistan share similar drives in plastic surgeries & prosthetics to give a large population of young soldiers some semblance of "normalcy" after horrific injuries not many had really seen before.
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KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
Missed all the arteries and important structures I’m guessing…you can live without your nose and mouth by way of feeding tube…but I cannot imagine he has a good quality of life though. :(
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#9
Blanche Monnier Was Secretly Kept Locked In A Small Room By Her Aristocratic Mother And Brother For 25 Years. Monnier Had Not Seen Any Sunlight For Her Entire Captivity
Shaun Coleman 5 months ago (edited)
I Googled Blanche Monnier after seeing this. I wish I hadn't. Absolutely horrific. The evil of people knows no bounds.
KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
I wonder if the movie “the disappointments room” was based on this poor woman’s story
#10
A Chinese Woman Whose Feet Were Bound From Childhood, 1911
SheamusFanFrom1987 5 months ago (edited)
How would anyone consider lotus feet attractive is beyond me. I'd be asking how in the blue hells are you supposed to walk like that??? Makes me a little sick of my ancestors... -_-"
Bananaramamama 5 months ago
I once read a very detailed account from a woman who had this done as a child. It is (obviously) very gruesome. Her sister had it done as well and died from the infection. I think the hardest part for me to comprehend was that her mother and grandmother did it. Who could intentionally break their little girls bones
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KC Lancaster 5 months ago
Absolutely! She is a woman of means. You can tell by her calm yet sad demeanor as she shows you her completely NAKED feet before they begin the swell. The photo clearly shows the toes folded over after the big toe. Do you think she's showing her feet as a request from a family member, or as part of documentation during the British occupation when they made the practice illegal?
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Susan Reid Smith 5 months ago
It was. Basically all of the bones in the foot were broken, then the foot was bound. The feet were never shown to men unwrapped.
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Moira Munguia 2 months ago (edited)
Some rich pervert hundreds of years ago described his concubine as a swaying willow because of her tiny feet. Also he said the tiny feet tightened up her lady parts. This is what supposedly started the tiny feet craze which passed on down the centuries I saw an old couple on a documentary and she had bound feet. He was very keen and you could see that he found them attractive :-(
Photographers also developed techniques to make prints brighter and their subjects look more appealing.
A British photography journal from 1875, for instance, advised using a sharp, fine-pointed pencil to add highlights, and suggested brightening areas like cheeks that printed too dark by “cross-hatching with a rather blunted pencil.”
#11
Nurses Carry Babies During A Gas Drill In A London Hospital In 1940
KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
Jeepers why is the nurse in front carrying that baby like a sack of potatoes?!?
#12
Shadow Of A Noose Against A Brick Tower During War Crimes Trials. Nuremberg, Germany
Luke Branwen 5 months ago
That was a time where people knew how to handle naz!s. Now it's all "please respect different opinions and agree to disagree 🥺"
Janet Sparrow 4 months ago
I’m 75 years old. As a young girl, I used to listen to these trials at night. Night time for us was daytime over in Germany.. I remember being just fascinated by the testimony..
John Mosley 5 months ago
What does passivity in response to violence solve? Sometimes you have to get violent to defend what's right.
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#13
Blind Pioneer, Photo By Antanas Sutkus, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1962
Carrie B 5 months ago
"Blind Pioneer, photo by Antanas Sutkus, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1962. The photo was taken at an orphanage for blind children and “pioneer” is a reference to the organization for children operated by a communist party."
Remi (He/Him) 5 months ago
Pioneers were the youth program of the Soviet communist party. Lithuania like the rest of the Baltic states were annexed by the Soviet union after the WW2
Janissary35680 5 months ago
The head shaving is a precaution against lice.
Load More Replies...Victorians, in general, were quite fond of using the “Photoshop” of their era to look better on camera.
Beyond pencil scratchings that brightened faces, photographers used various tricks to slim waists, adjust necklines, reshape arms, and tweak features like mouths, hair, and eyes.
No Facetune required to look snatched.
#14
Coal Miners Returning From The Depths After A Days Work, Belgium, Circa 1900
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
And have 12-year-olds as the main "employees", most likely :(
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Squirrel Chaser 2 months ago
You should see the condition of coal mining in China today.
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Jrog 5 months ago (edited)
These are the miners in the N.5 pit of the Bascoup Coal Mine, Belgium, owned by the Mariemont-Bascoup Coal Company (SA des Charbonnages de Mariemont-Bascoup). This was the lift connecting to the tunnels at 800 meters depth. The lift was designed to move coal carts, that would fit in the slots in the elevator seen here; at the start and end of shift the elevator could fit up to 6 workers in the space of a cart. The photo is from the early 1910s, not 1900 as in the title, and was circulated in the 1920s. Most of those miners were of Italian origin, Bascoup had a large community of emigrants working the mines, mostly Italians but also Balcanic, Polish and Hungarians
Jrog 5 months ago (edited)
The average Belgian miner in 1910 earned 2 Francs per day, enough to buy about 4 kg of bread so roughly translating to 8 euro today and absolutely far from a living wage. The work day was 12 hours long, 6 days per week (7 days before 1905), and the minimum age to work the mine was 9, when they could start as a carter or apprentice miners. Women could be employed as miners until 1900, when King Leopold -amidst one crime against humanity and a genocide- gracefully issued a law warranting some minimum work standards protecting women and children. Not men, obviously, because fu*k them. Mind you, for a while those were the "good ol' days", since in 1915 with WWI most miners were called to the army as tunnelers, and the remaining ones faced increased demand, reduced workforce, worsened conditions and ultimately military occupation.
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#15
Clown On Stilts, The Way They Used To Bring It
#16
The Marriage Of 22-Year-Old Charlie Johns And 9-Year-Old Eunice Winstead Was A Child Marriage That Took Place In The State Of Tennessee, United States, In January 1937
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
The Wikipedia article on this links to lots of sources. Words fail me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_of_Charlie_Johns_and_Eunice_Winstead
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Lukas (he/him, it/its) 5 months ago
Luckily this case was the reason Tennessee raised the legal marriage age to 16.
KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
Utterly disgusting! Just because it was allowed doesn’t make right…I cannot imagine marrying a child and at age 9 there’s no way she’s ready to be a wife and mother. Shame on her parents for not protecting her!
MedusaWasBeautiful 5 months ago
Parents most likely married her off to avoid poverty.
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Lola July 5 months ago
There are still 4 states with no minimum age requirement. 1.California 2.Mississippi,3 OK 4. N.M.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
It's not like a 9-year-old could get forced into marriage in California, though: "With parental consent and judicial approval, a person can marry under the age of eighteen but the partners and the minor's parents have to meet with court officials who must rule out abuse or coercion. There is a 30-day waiting period for minors unless they are seventeen and have graduated high school or one of the partners is pregnant."
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They didn’t stop at beauty edits, either. Different photographers experimented with all sorts of effects to make images more interesting or downright eerie.
Techniques included distorted images, pinhole photography, mirror portraits, “magic vignettes,” artificial mirages, ghostly double exposures, silhouettes, and even staged “decapitated” headshots.
#17
Misses Fannie Mills Aka “The Ohio Big Foot Girl”
B Jean the Jelly Bean 5 months ago
She was from Sandusky Ohio. She appeared in dime museums in the 1880s. Audiences flocked to see her. As a result, Mills could sometimes earn as much as $4,000 a week. But money doesn't make a happy life.😓
to old to care 5 months ago
if this was in 2025, we would call it AI. Some ailments are hard to imagine being real.
Earonn - 4 months ago
No, we would know that such medical conditions do exist.
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Shaun Coleman 5 months ago
Unfortunately, she lived in a time when the treatment for her condition did not exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milroy%27s_disease
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EJN 3 months ago
Probably lymphedema, where the lymph vessels in the legs are lacking the small valves that keep lymph from backing up (pooling in the legs) due to gravity. The only treatment is lymph massage and pressure stockings. It can occur in any part of the body, but is most obvious in the appendages - hands, arms, legs, and feet.
#18
A Trapper Boy, One Mile Inside A Mine In West Virginia, 1908
UKDeek 5 months ago
What is worrying is some people in politics want to go back to stuff like this, and I don't just mean in the USA either. We are rapidly forgetting the lessons of the horrors of the past, and obsessing over what was perceived as being "the good ol' days". Life wasn't really better 40 years ago, just that we only try to remember the good parts rather than all of it!
Susan Reid Smith 5 months ago
I had to look it up to remind myself. They basically sat in the dark to open and close doors when loads of coal were being hauled out.
#19
Glasgow School Of Art Student Performance - Early 1900s
Marie BellaDonna 4 months ago
They remind me of the priests and pharisees in the 1973 movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Of course, the next question is: how did they pull it off?
Take spirit photography.
In the early 20th century, a British man named William Hope gained fame in Spiritualist circles for allegedly capturing images of ghosts in his photos.
He formed a group called the Crewe Circle, taking advantage of grieving families who had lost loved ones in World War I and wanted proof their relatives were still near.
By 1922, Hope was making good money in London as a spirit photographer and medium, with supporters like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
#20
Ella Harper, Known As The "Camel Girl", Was Born With A Very Rare Orthopedic Condition That Caused Her Knees To Bend Backwards, Called Congenital Genu Recurvatum
KC Lancaster 5 months ago
She was a happy person, could get around fine, made lots of money as the star in the W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, and was married later to a school teacher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Harper
Ginger ninja 4 months ago
As long as she wasnt in pain then get that bag girl! Its sick that people would pay money just to see a disabled person but it was also the only way they could participate in society or they would be locked away because being disabled in public was against the law
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CanadianaKa 5 months ago
She got around just fine and was featured as a star in a circus that paid her $200 a week (which is the equivalent of $7,000 a week in today's money). It's gross that this was in the day where human oddities were part of circuses but as a star, she earned an impressive living. Also since in those days doctors were still learning to do things like wash their hands between patients, the survival rate of a double amputation would have been too risky!
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Melted And Damaged Mannequins After A Fire At Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum In London, 1925
AtMostAFabulist 5 months ago (edited)
That head on the left side on the floor, is looking up the butt of that mannequin 😲
KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
Thank goodness for the context added or I would think that’s a picture of real decapitated head! :O
Abby Rexroth 5 months ago
Wax is VERY flammable; the Vincent Price movie House of Wax is a perfect, fictional, example of it.
Christine 5 months ago
Great example of the Uncanny Valley. (Very interesting. If you’re not familiar, look it up. Wikipedia can explain it better than I could I’m sure!
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Operation Doorstep Was A Civil Defense Test. In Operation Doorstep, Blast And Thermal Effects Were Evaluated On Mannequins
Tucker Cahooter 5 months ago
The guy in the jacket seems to be coping well, the others not so much
David Jackson 4 months ago
I remember seeing something like this in one of the Indiana Jones movies
But how did he actually create these ghostly images?
According to Nathaniel Stein, a photography fellow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the main trick was double exposure on photosensitized glass plates.
Photographers would first capture the “spirit” (often a person draped in fabric) and then use the same plate to photograph the sitter, resulting in a ghostly overlay that looked convincingly supernatural.
Alternatively, multiple negatives could be printed onto a single piece of photographic paper.
Eventually, skeptics exposed Hope’s photos as fakes, but for a time, people truly believed they were seeing the afterlife.
#23
Wrapped Medical Cadavers At University Of Pennsylvania Circa 1915
Sara Frazer 5 months ago
"Gaze my friends perhaps with glee, as you are now- so once were we, and if you do not give a cuss, just grab a hook- and follow us"
Lotekguy 5 months ago
And if this picture gives you pause, we think we look great in gauze.
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amy lee 2 days ago
Probably all of them. It'll decompose/burn or it could educate someone to provide life saving care. If I'm not suitable for harvesting I'm opting for this.
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Oscar 2 months ago
And this is where we keep the secret ingredient of our Krabby patties
Load More Replies... LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Vee, I'm pretty sure absolutely NO ONE forced you to read an article literally titled "50 Terrifying Historical Photos That Are As Fascinating As They Are Scary". YOU chose to read this article after seeing the headline. That's on you, not on BP.
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Portrait Of German Architect Carl Weber And His Wife, Emily Of Stratford In 1850, Just Hours After She Died
The Scout 5 months ago
Actually it was not. Contrary to popular belief, lifelike depictions of deceased persons were rare. Post mortem photography was a thing, but usually showed the person on a bed or even in a coffin. Most of those photos labeled as victorian port mortem today actually show persons who were very much alive at the time. This myth has been debunked multiple times but still remains widespread. See https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/debunking-postmortem-photographs/, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-post-mortem-photographs or https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/1ji7anv/no_victorian_photographers_did_not_prop_up_dead/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20easier%20myths,more%20than%20a%20few%20seconds.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 5 months ago
They may have painted "eyes" onto her closed lids for the photo.
Pyla 5 months ago
You can tell these often there was perfect focus on the deceased sitter compared to motion blur on the others
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#25
Josephine Myrtle Corbin, The Four Legged Woman (1890's)
Multa Nocte 5 months ago
Is there a reason some people feel compelled to come here to make ugly comments about people who were born with abnormalities?
Saphyre Fyre 5 months ago
Because they're damaged/broken and they think it makes them feel better.
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Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
She married and had five children. She had two complete sets of reproductive organs. "[Dr. Lewis Whaley] determined that it was in her left uterus that Mrs. B. was pregnant. According to Whaley, upon being told that she was pregnant, she replied in disbelief, saying "If it had been in my right side I would come nearer believing you are correct."" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrtle_Corbin
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Hilary 4 months ago
I think she was probably in utero with a twin who died and was in the process of being absorbed by Josephine. Something went wrong from that point.
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LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
If this photo truly is from the 1890s, she would have been an adult woman by then. She was born in 1868, so by 1890, she would have been 22.
Load More Replies... Then there were the headless portraits, first achieved around 1856 by Oscar Rejlander, a Swedish-born Victorian photographer known for pioneering photomontage and combination printing.
To create these eerie images, multiple negatives were layered and combined to make it appear as though the subject had been cleanly separated from their head.
#26
"Hells Cafe" In Paris 1920s
JB 5 months ago
Sounds like a good nickname for the current US administration!
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#27
A British Merchant Being Carried By A Sikkimese Lady On Her Back. West Bengal Circa 1903
General Anaesthesia 5 months ago
But at least they passed the Slavery Abolition Act for the whole empire in 1833, effective in 1834.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago
Yes indeed - Britain freed the slaves by paying their owners using a huge government loan. You can guess how much compensation the formerly enslaved got.
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#28
Disney Technicians Repairing An Animatronic Figure
Marla Singer 5 months ago
I'm sure the finished figure was dressed in clothes. Why did they bother to give it such a realistic butt?? 😆
Margaret H 5 months ago
If the front view was as realistic, I'm glad it was fixed from the back!
The Majestic Opossum 5 months ago
Wow, I should've read the title before looking at the photo!
So the next time you come across an old photo with a ghostly figure, a floating head, or an unsettling aura, you’ll know what was really happening behind the lens. The mystery might be solved, but the wonder and the chill remain. And maybe, that’s what makes them so unforgettable.
#29
Photographs Of An Unwrapped Mummy Illustrating The Processes Of Mummification, 1941
Pyla 5 months ago
More or less. Mummification entails frying, so as a bag of salty meat, we shrink down when dried.
Load More Replies... #30
Les Diableries, A Series Of Stereoscopic Photographs Published In Paris During The 1860s
KrazyChiMama 5 months ago
I legit thought that said “Les Diabetes” at first glance! :D (facepalm)
Lil be lil 5 months ago
If you don't know how to have fun in life, maybe in death you get a second chance.
#31
Two Wax Department Store Mannequins Melt During A Heat Wave In London, 1929, Allegedly. They Also Live In Your Closet And Spy On You When You're Asleep
#32
Everyone Keeps Smiling And Most Ignore What Happens After Miss New Zealand Passed Out During The Photo Shoot Before The Miss Universe And Miss USA Pageants In Long Beach, Ca, Us In 1954
Barbara Wilcock 5 months ago
Sounds like those strange kardashian wax people
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QuincyForrest 5 months ago
"...is she still breathing?" "Yeah, looks like it." "Then our work here is done."
Dav Carro-Ripalda 5 months ago
I assume all of them are thinking: "good, one less... 123 to go..."
Xxxzyyy 4 months ago
Looking at the others she locked her legs. It's why military members pass out after at attention for a while.
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Gracie Mae 4 months ago
Google shows it was thought that Moana Nui-a-Kiwa Hinemoa Manley Whaanga fainted from heat exhaustion. It also states that the temp that day was 72 degrees fahrenheit, so probably not--more likely to have been stress or lack of eating properly. AI suggests it was a 'staged' photo
#33
Twins In Homemade Costumes In 1930
#34
A Girl Brushes Her Hair In 1920s
Bonesko 5 months ago
I just got a phone call saying in 7 days I die so I'm calling out of work tomorrow
Rex-a-Roni 5 months ago
Yeah... if you could come in anyway, that'd be great...
Load More Replies... G A 5 months ago
Weird that this provokes unease. Nothing is inherently off about the subject or the picture but it must just be something from the lighting and the composition. As soon as I looked at it, I felt slight oddness about it.
Brent Amador 4 months ago
I imagine she’s singing a series of “la la laaaalaaala, laaaaa la laaaalaaa la” each time her voices gets a little deeper. Her names Mary Sue, her parents didn’t name her Mary Sue, the “House” did.
#35
A Us Navy L-8 Blimp That Continued To Fly After Its Crew Allegedly Disappeared, 1942
Multa Nocte 5 months ago
"A United States Navy blimp whose two-man crew vanished under mysterious circumstances, floats unmanned over San Francisco, California, on August 16, 1942."
Cindy Brick 5 months ago
I have always wondered about this one...one of the true mysteries that can't seem to be explained.
#36
Old Clown Picture I Found Among Old Family Photos
#37
The Michelin Men In The 1920s
#38
A Creepy Costume
PurpleTribe 5 months ago
Always when I leave work late and have to get on an elevator. Always this dude…
#39
Old Picture Hanging In The Basement Hallway Of A Hospital
AtMostAFabulist 5 months ago
What is going on with the second nun on the right? She looks possessed.
Shortstuff 5 months ago
When you read how cruel most nuns were, this makes me shudder....what went on in that hospital??.
#40
Couple At A Fair In Mexico 1940
#41
Newly Formed Doll Heads Drying At A Doll Factory 1947
Crissy Newbury 5 months ago
Plastic was a fairly new invention back then. Looks absolutely toxic.
#42
A Young Girl Stands Near Live Alligators On An Alligator Farm In Florida, Us In 1948
MygrandsonscallmeNia 4 months ago
I don't care how tame those May be; I absolutely would not, let a child that close to an alligator! They can snap in an instant, and rip her apart!
Panda Cat 2 months ago
I really don’t like Alligators and Crocodiles. I don’t like Monitor Lizards much either. (I do like Crocs, the shoes but don’t wear them much in public. They’re from just down the road from me but probably manufactured … elsewhere. It’s probably a good thing I bought 3 mix and match pairs, and one insulated pair before the oh-so-wise tariffs). No way would I let anyone near them unless their jaws are securely tied shut.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Uh, what makes you think anything has changed post-2000s?
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#43
Treatment For Headaches In 1895
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
I'll be honest, I suffer from chronic debilitating migraines (complete with aura and phantom smells) and the ringing in my ears from the hammering might distract me from the migraine pain for a couple of glorious seconds... XD I'd try it once >_>;
Load More Replies... Uncle Schmickle 5 months ago
The old bloke with the hammer looks like something out of a Renaissance painting.
Ginger ninja 4 months ago
You know what, during one of my chronic migraines I might give this a try
Panda Cat 2 months ago
I have an app that lessens tinnitus but I haven’t had tinnitus since I picked it up.
Load More Replies... #44
Gas Mask Parade, Tokyo, 1930s
Squirrel Chaser 2 months ago
I'm trying to decide if that comment was racist or not...
Load More Replies... #45
Full Face Swimming Mask From 1928
featherytoad 5 months ago
I'm guessing to shield your skin from the chlorine and sun.
Load More Replies... #46
Disturbing Photo From Grandmother's Photo Album. Early 1900s. Context Unknown
Uncle Schmickle 5 months ago
Maybe they were just play acting ? Otherwise why the bizarre masks ?
#47
Art And Camera Magazine, 1952
Regina Rooney 3 months ago
I think this was probably fairly risque back in the day, otherwise why the mask? Showing that much leg in those days was very erotic.
#48
A Young Boy Gets His Teeth Examined At London's Friern Hospital 1890/1910
🤣🤣🤣 (Me while reading bp) 5 months ago
This was during the time when as a "treat" for tour 21st birthday everyone had all their teeth taken out and were given dentures (happened to my great grandma)
Cj Churchall-McKenzie 4 months ago
i dare you to say that in certain east end london pubs. lol
Load More Replies... Cj Churchall-McKenzie 4 months ago
Friern hospital was a psych hospital. which makes this picture more scary and sad. also now converted into luxury flats and health spa/gym
#49
A Whale's Remains In Alaska, 1910
Jamie Peterson 5 months ago
The blast blasted blubber beyond unbelievable bounds...
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#50
Stephan Bibrowski (1890–1932), Better Known As Lionel The Lion-Faced Man, Was A Famous Sideshow Performer. His Whole Body Was Covered With Long Hair That Gave Him The Appearance Of A Lion
howdylee 5 months ago
Honest question... do these abnormalities still occur in people today? I assume our medical advances would have remedies for such conditions. But not sure if they no longer occur, due to better health & hygiene in general.
[>.<]/ 5 months ago
Hypertrichosis is in no way eradicated. Only treatment is hair removal. This is an extreme case and very rare, but it still occurs today.
Load More Replies... #51
To Appear Headless While Taking A Photo, Known As "Horsemaning", Was A Popular Way To Pose In The 1920's
#52
1934 Max Factor Demonstrates His Scientific Device” The Beauty Micrometer Which Detects Defects In Feminine Beauty
I’ve Seen Things 5 months ago
🤦♀️ Can you imagine if this was the other way around and some old lady was detecting a man’s failure to uphold her opinion of beauty standards.
azubi 5 months ago
"What a man is more beautiful than a monkey is a luxury!" (Friedrich Torberg)
Load More Replies... Panda'sMom 3 months ago (edited)
This was done to correct shadows that would " interfere with the beauty" of an actress under the VERY harsh lighting of 20's and 30's movies sets. He used this device in order to correctly apply the makeup. BTW there was another device for men but you never see pictures of it. Max Factor was well known for his quality makeup and application.
General Anaesthesia 5 months ago
Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose - the more it changes, the more it's the same thing.
#53
This Is Francesco Lentini, The 3 Legged Man. He Spent His Years Working For The Circus And Lived Until The Age Of 77
#54
Devil's Mask Representing Leprosy, 14th Century
LakotaWolf (she/her) 5 months ago
Happily, it's treatable and curable today! And vaccines to prevent it are being researched/in clinical trials :D
Motivated sloth 5 months ago
My daughter (a nurse) and I had a conversation in which leprosy was for some reason mentioned. She wasn’t aware people still had it in places with advanced medical fields. The next day a patient came into the ER with it, she couldn’t believe it. She was even more shocked when the hematologist prescribed blood letting. Biblical illness =biblical treatment I guess? Kidding of course but her disbelief was very entertaining.
Load More Replies... #55
Vintage Photo Of A Ventriloquist And His Dummy, 1929
AtMostAFabulist 5 months ago
Are we sure the guy is not a wax dummy? Why do his eyes and forehead look so weird?
General Anaesthesia 5 months ago
He's wearing a monocle in the movie The Great Gabbo (1929)
Load More Replies... sofacushionfort 5 months ago
That’s Eric von Stroheim, thwarted as a director by the studio system, turned to acting in The Great Gabbo
Vinnie 5 months ago
The studios chopping up his films wasn't the only reason for the demise of his directing career. Erich von Stroheim was notorious for going over budget and over schedule. There are examples of other very good directors who flourished. At the other end of saving time and money: Alfred Hitchcock used his drawing skills to storyboard his movies and wasted little footage.
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Michael Largey 5 months ago
This reminds me of that ventriloquist "The Great Putini" and his orange-haired dummy.
#57
Injuries Suffered From The 1892 Princeton Freshmen/Sophomore Snowball Fight
#58
From British Movie "First Men On The Moon" In 1919
TotallyNOTAFox 5 months ago
And it only took another 50 years to actually bring two men up there for the first time
G A 5 months ago
If you had bothered you read the book or done the slightest research instead of just trying to appear clever clever, you would know they are Insects.
Load More Replies... #59
Group Of Creepy Cat Ladies
RamiRudolph 5 months ago
Can you really call them Cat Ladies if there's only one cat in the whole photo?
#60
Ruth Snyder's Mid-E*******n Photo Taken By Tom Howard And Published The Next Day In The New York Daily News
Multa Nocte 5 months ago
Jesus H. Christ, Bored Panda, you censor every other fucking word these days yet you show a picture of a person mid-electrocution? What the fuck?
Tucker Cahooter 5 months ago
Nice to see your use of f*****g wasn't censored
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Ahnjunwan 5 months ago
That is awful. I do not want to see shite like this, honestly, who thought it would be ok to post this for entertainment? The fact that it happened is allready horrible enough but posting pictures of it? But god forbid somebody is writing the word sêx somewhere 🫣
Claire Collymore 5 months ago
Does BP have a policy on what should be censored? Words like s-l-a-v-e and p-e-n-i-s do not need to be censored but photos like this are genuinely distressing to anyone with a drop of compassion.
5 months ago
Yes, she was electrocuted in Sing Sing for the murder of her husband.
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Lee Gilliland 5 months ago
The newsman strapped the camera to his ankle and crossed his legs to snap the picture.
Boop the Snoot. Pound the Paw. 5 months ago
Bored Panda. Do better. This photo is horrific and offensive. Take it down for f***s sake.
Valegro 5 months ago
IDK hey, then maybe don't read a post with the title "Terrifying Historical Photos", I don't understand what you thought would be shown in this article?
Load More Replies... Shortstuff 5 months ago
Why put this up when you can't read the caption? Oh, it's electro..cution.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
If enough people downvote this sickening photo, perhaps BP will get the message. I don't care that it was published in a vile newspaper. This is a photograph of a woman being cold-bloodedly killed in an exceptionally cruel manner. Delete this post, BP - just get rid of it!
#61
Young Child Born As A Result Of Human-Ape Mating Experiments (1950)
Lukas (he/him, it/its) 5 months ago
This is from a subreddit called r/fakehistoryporn, by the way. Might help some people lol
Sara Frazer 5 months ago
-___- that's so obviously an average small human child with a mask and adult shoes
Motivated sloth 5 months ago
It is truly disturbing how many people in the comments section are unsure whether or not this is real.
G A 5 months ago (edited)
Scarily pre WWII, Stalin ordered experiments to breed just such a thing, to serve as troops. Expendable and only part human so their loss would not be mourned. They did get some women pregnant but fortunately they lost the 'children'. The scientist fell out of favour and was shipped off to a g***g.
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What do you think ?
persephone134 5 months ago
The discrepancy between publishing such pictures and censoring words and names in Orwellian proportions is beyond me.
Shaun Coleman 5 months ago
Meh. I found the random censoring of words by Bored Panda more disturbing.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
Shaun Coleman: so, people getting killed, children walking towards death by genocide, and you're fine with that - but words being redacted disturbs you? Shaun, seriously, you need some psychotherapy to deal with what are clearly some serious problems in your mind. 😬
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
Get rid of the photo of Ruth Snyder being killed. That's just sick. We can't type "twérp" in comments without getting censored, and you think it's okay to show a human being getting killed? Shame on you!
Grace Sssssss 5 months ago
Good collection of photos. I hadn't seen a lot of these before; I learned so much.
Henk Lafifi 3 months ago
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Robin DJW 5 months ago
Sorry, BP. I don't come to this site to be sickened. It takes very little for me to reach satiety of a prurient appetite in grotesqueries. "Creepy and unsettling" are inadequate terms for most of these. I gave up after just a few.
RamiRudolph 5 months ago
Well I disagree, those were really interesting. A few were of bad taste, like the electric chair one, but most were great.
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persephone134 5 months ago
The discrepancy between publishing such pictures and censoring words and names in Orwellian proportions is beyond me.
Shaun Coleman 5 months ago
Meh. I found the random censoring of words by Bored Panda more disturbing.
Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
Shaun Coleman: so, people getting killed, children walking towards death by genocide, and you're fine with that - but words being redacted disturbs you? Shaun, seriously, you need some psychotherapy to deal with what are clearly some serious problems in your mind. 😬
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 5 months ago (edited)
Get rid of the photo of Ruth Snyder being killed. That's just sick. We can't type "twérp" in comments without getting censored, and you think it's okay to show a human being getting killed? Shame on you!
Grace Sssssss 5 months ago
Good collection of photos. I hadn't seen a lot of these before; I learned so much.
Henk Lafifi 3 months ago
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Robin DJW 5 months ago
Sorry, BP. I don't come to this site to be sickened. It takes very little for me to reach satiety of a prurient appetite in grotesqueries. "Creepy and unsettling" are inadequate terms for most of these. I gave up after just a few.
RamiRudolph 5 months ago
Well I disagree, those were really interesting. A few were of bad taste, like the electric chair one, but most were great.
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