People Are Sharing Pics Of Life 50-100 Years Ago And They Might Put Things In A New Perspective
The easiest way for us to get a glimpse into the good old days is to open up our family's photo album. But what if we go through the images and instead of calming down our curiosity, they only fuel it? Easy. We open up the subreddit r/TheWayWeWere next.
It's a place where folks share pictures from 50, 100, and even more years ago to show what everyday life looked like in the past. Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes, this subreddit has become one of the biggest vintage archives online.
Continue scrolling and check out why 528K people subscribe to r/TheWayWeWere.
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Mary Wallace: First Female Bus Driver For Chicago Transit Authority (1974)
My Ridiculously Attractive Grandparents Sitting For A Portrait In The Early 1940s
The last 100 years have produced profound changes in human history.
Wars, technological developments, progress in civil rights, and breakthroughs in science and medicine, the old world has been swept away. Whether it's for better or worse.
Centuries-old empires crumbled as new ideologies – like communism and fascism – took over in many parts of the world. Wars in the early part of the 20th century put an end to the colonial world and gave birth to new nations. However, these wars also cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
My Mom On Her Wedding Day November 1951
Cats Blackie & Brownie Catching Squirts Of Milk During Milking At Arch Badertscher's Dairy Farm In Fresno, California, 1954
Throughout the past century, technological innovations have transformed our lives in ways we never dreamed of. Progressive ideas emerged and changed the world as women, African Americans, and the LGBTQ community demanded, and often won, equal rights; from the ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States to the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries. But recent civil rights conflicts tell us the fight for equality is not over.
A Native American Girl Of The Kiowa Tribe, Oklahoma, 1894
From the neck up, she looks like someone you could see in a middle school today. The dress is gorgeous though! I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it. I hope the dress is still in her family.
I feel like it's rare to see someone smiling in a photo of this age. It's lovely.
Her name is O-o-dee and yes she was of the Kiowa people in the Oklahoma Territory.
I think it's O-o-be' ? From research on multiple sources. The second comment of https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/b053ti/native_american_teenager_in_1894/ gives a source of the image (this link: https://americanindian.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/PreVisitGuide_K-6_final.pdf ). https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/gcfiyd/a_native_american_girl_of_the_kiowa_tribe/ gives her name as O-o-be' instead of O-o-be in KPac76's comment, as well as SOME insight into what she and her people underwent.
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You don't see a lot of people smiling in photos that old. This is beautiful.
She was radiant, I hope her radiance and joy were not terrified out of her considering what was done to them as a people. Seeing her joy is just extra heart breaking that so many people and the US government of the time violently and viciously sought to eradicate indigenous people like her.
Can you just enjoy the picture? Does everything have to be a political statement?
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Basically? She is undoubtedly. I don't understand.
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This is probably the first Native American picture I have seen where the person is actually smiling.
She is beautiful, all that native history in this photo make me want to cry. Everything is hand made that she's wearing. There's no greater history than that.
She's just pure childhood happiness. I mean her face is so beautiful and happy and she could be any teenage girl right now laughing while hanging out with her friends. That human emotion on her face crosses any gender, race, religion, and time. Everyone can relate to how she's feeling in that moment.
I love the native dresses that they wore. Too bad these cultures have been forgotten...
beautiful smile. Usually the people look extremly serious on photo of that era
She looks like 1994, happy healthy georgous smile, dress! Leigh from Delaware
Correction: Apache is considered a title & NOT the tribal name.
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this is literally the only native-American person whom I have seen with a smile.
I didn’t know it was physically possible to smile in a picture back then.
She looks so very happy! I wish the photo was in color so we could examine her dress better. Fantastic!
Lovely to see someone of that era smiling, they're normally so solemn.
I love the fact that she's smiling when most non natives during that time didn't smile I'm photos.
This is so cool! I never see photos this old with people actually smiling!
I love her smile, she seems so happy! And her clothes are beautiful as well!
Omg, I want her hair....and her beautiful smile.... oh, and her dress.
I hope to gods that this is NOT one of those sick before/after pics of how the indian residential schools were able to 'save' kids by making them 'white'. I hope this girl was able to grow up and live her life with her culture in a good healthy way without white interference. https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/thomas-moore-keesick-more-than-just-a-face this link is to one of the more famous pics of that genre.
The picture is beautiful, but in my opinion, the term "Native American" is derogatory because it implies that the land is America and belongs to America even though it was inhabited by Indigenous peoples way before settlers came over. It also says that they are not their own people, but Americans. No one identified as "American" until settlers stumbled upon it by accident and claimed it for themselves, calling it America.
Wow! I never see an old photograph of a native american where they actually smile!
The belt buckle and the socks are telling me it's one of those old-time faux portrait studio portraits. It took a very long time to take a photo back then, 20 minutes or longer just to get the set up correct smiling for that long like that would make your face hurt. The is the reason why you rarely see people smiling like that in old photos. She's also not standing in a field or something like that but instead as a painted wall behind her. While it's not impossible for that to have occurred usually natural light worked better for photography purposes in that time period so I doubt this is the real story behind this photo and it more than likely is a fake.
You're really good at being wrong. By 1894, film had largely supplanted glass slides, and exposure times were measured in fractions of a second.
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By 1894, exposure times were measured in fractions of a second. The original Kodak box camera, which brought photography to the average person, had been on the market for several years by then.
Load More Replies...My Great-Great-Grandmother Sometime In The 1890s
The pandemic that began ravaging the world in 2020 reminds us that even though we can buy a ticket to go to space, we're still vulnerable to viruses that can shut down economies and disrupt society.
People are hoping science can save Earth from the devastating changes to the climate that continue to imperil the ecosystems of our planet. In the coming years, natural disasters may have an increasingly impactful role in the course of history. Who knows where we will end up in another 100.
Protesting The High School Dress Code That Banned Slacks For Girls, Brooklyn C.1940
Two Pals (1920)
Gay Men Pose For A Photo While Being Detained At A Police Station For Being Homosexuals In Mexico, 1935
1945: The Day Daddy Came Home. Gunner Hector Murdoch Had Been Gone Over Four Years, Most Of It As A Prisoner Of War In Singapore. His Wife Rosina And Son John Hadn't Known If He Was Dead Or Alive. He Got Home On His Birthday
Dad Showing Off His Skill To The Surprise Of His Little Daughter In Melbourne, Australia, Ca. 1940s
London's First Black Police Officer, PC Norwell Roberts, On Point Duty Near Charing Cross Station, 1968
He's definitely on point duty. That's a fantastic point he's got there.
This 1955 Photo Is One Of Walter Chandoha’s Most Famous Shots. “My Daughter Paula And The Kitten Both ‘Smiled’ For The Camera At The Same Time. …but The Cat’s Not Smiling, He’s Meowing”
Sisters In Skirts, 1950s
My Great Grandmother In The Early 1900’s. Thought She Looked Too Awesome Not To Share
My Parents’ Wedding Photo, Okinawa, 1964
My Grandpa (Left) And His Best Friend Willie Hall During The Korean War. Those Smiles Say It All
My Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-Great-Grandfather, And Great-Great-Great Grandmother, Ca 1918
My Great-Grandfather That Was Too Poor To Afford A Suit In Sicily, So He Had To Pose In Front Of A Cardboard Cut-Out, 1930s~
This Is Hazel, My Grandmother-In-Law. 1916
My Grandmother And Mom Circa 1974. My Grandmother Took My Mother To National Parks Over The Course Of A Few Months, Just The Two Of Them
“Our Michael”, 1938
A Sailor "Meets" His Baby For The First Time After Fourteen Months At Sea, 1940s
Okay, some parenting lessons may be needed. Day One: How to Hold the Baby.
Grandma And Papa In 1937. She Passed Away Today At 100 Years Old
Last Picture Of My Great Uncle Kennith, Before He Drowned In The Buffalo River, 1940’s. He Gave His Life Saving My Grandpa
My Mother Made Us Matching Dresses For A Fancy Party Back In 1954
Saw This Photo Posted Here.. Noticed I Have The Photo The Grandmother Took That Day. (Bought At An Antique Shop Years Ago In Phx)
A Parisian Woman With Her Cat In Her Cannabis Garden, 1910
I have a cat. All I need now is the garden (and some law changes please).
This Is My Grandma Dorothy. She Was A Dress Designer In The 50s Which Always Made This Photo More Funny To Me. She Passed Away Today At Age 89. A Life Well Lived
Vintage Photo From A Family Album, Freeport, Il
Besides the obvious that he is a black man and she a white woman in the 1900s, when this required a lot of guts, I love the fact he's wearing puttees as part of civilian dress. This was pretty common before WW1. After the war... not so much.
Me And My Best Friend Rocky Watching TV, 1959
Ladies At A Lesbian Club In Chelsea, 1953
A Mostly Happy Family Outing At Chicken Bone Beach, The Segregated Section Of Atlantic City's Beach Area, New Jersey, 1950s (Photographed By John W. Mosley)
1976 vs. 2018; 42 Years And We're Still Going Strong
Young Oyster Shuckers, Port Royal, South Carolina, 1909
Crikey - the “thousand yard stare” at that young age. Life must have been tough for these girls.
Reddit Seems To Love My Taita (Grandma), So Here Is Another One Of Her From 1950’s Beirut
The Wedding Rings Of My Ggm, Gggm, Ggggm, And Gggggm Oldest Dating Back To 1832!
Police Officer Unaware Of The Imminent Danger, Chicago, 1959
After Spending More Than Five Years In A North Vietnamese Camp, Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm Is Reunited With His Family At Travis Afb, March 13, 1973
This photo, called "Burst of Joy" won a Pulitzer prize. It has an unhappy ending though. According to Wikipedia "Despite outward appearances, the reunion was an unhappy one for Stirm. Three days before he arrived in the United States, the same day he was released from captivity, Stirm received a Dear John letter from his wife Loretta informing him that their marriage was over. Stirm later learned that Loretta had been with other men throughout his captivity, receiving marriage proposals from three of them. In 1974, the Stirms divorced and Loretta remarried, but Lieutenant Colonel Stirm was still ordered by the courts to provide her with 43% of his military retirement pay once he retired from the Air Force. Stirm was later promoted to full Colonel and retired from the Air Force in 1977."
My Grandpa’s Schoolhouse In Texas Ca. 1930’s. He Was Always Embarrassed Of This Picture Because He Was Too Poor To Afford Shoes
My dad remembered going to school in Ireland in the early 1940s alongside kids with no shoes. Extreme poverty is more recent than you think.
Women Trainees Of The Lapd Practice Firing Their Newly Issued Revolvers, 1948
Dublin, 1962
Caught On The Firescape, 1946
Offerings To The Unknown Dead, Kyoto, Japan, 1963
The 70s Transition: My Parents In 1968 And Again In 1970
My American Grandmother Visiting Athens In The 1960s
Such style in a lot of these pictures! Too bad nobody really dares to wear anymore
Listening To The Radio On The Beach, Circa 1940s
The Rolled-Stockings Trend Of The 1920's Brought On A Fad Of Hand-Painted Knees
Class Divide In Britain, 1930's
Me Ready For Friday Night Lights, 1969
Note: this post originally had 117 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I have all my grandparents and great grandparents old picture albums ! Come on over !
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It was my grandfather's birthday. This WWII "happy event" shows the wear and tear of the times on the faces of the participants. My mother - upper left - almost has a smile. Who knew in 1943 where the war would take us, how it would end? war-birthd...549034.jpg 
My other fave pic from that era. 1967, my Mum and Dad looking like freakin' movie stars at the Fortuna Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. In a band, they were fresh out of a night in jail because their shady agent forgot to renew their visas. Still no sign of their luggage, they had to borrow the hotel's bathrobes while they waited. Love the back story behind the "glamour" shot, lol! 1967-Dad-a...63e818.jpg 
My parents on their first date in 1963. I came along about a year later :-) 1963-Dad-a...c52148.jpg 
This is a reminder that parents / grandparents were once young people doing what young people do. My dad used to always say “of course I know what you’re up to, because I did the same things when I was your age” and I would always think “you were never my age age, you’re the dad”
Lastly, 'cause I could go on and on (you're welcome!), here I am with Mum and Dad at their "second" wedding in 1974 (big semi-scandal at the time, I'm the only one that didn't know it was their first). Wonderful example of my Dad's style and porn 'stache. And I look adorable. 1974-Mum-a...b84dae.jpg 
It genuinely saddens me that when people look at photographs 100 years from now, they'll see garbage like their grandmother's trout pout and not at all like the elegance and grace of 'our' 100 years ago.
I enjoyed the post, so different, I truly love old, styles as compared to today, is blah !!!
I have all my grandparents and great grandparents old picture albums ! Come on over !
Load More Replies... It was my grandfather's birthday. This WWII "happy event" shows the wear and tear of the times on the faces of the participants. My mother - upper left - almost has a smile. Who knew in 1943 where the war would take us, how it would end? war-birthd...549034.jpg
My other fave pic from that era. 1967, my Mum and Dad looking like freakin' movie stars at the Fortuna Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. In a band, they were fresh out of a night in jail because their shady agent forgot to renew their visas. Still no sign of their luggage, they had to borrow the hotel's bathrobes while they waited. Love the back story behind the "glamour" shot, lol! 1967-Dad-a...63e818.jpg
My parents on their first date in 1963. I came along about a year later :-) 1963-Dad-a...c52148.jpg
This is a reminder that parents / grandparents were once young people doing what young people do. My dad used to always say “of course I know what you’re up to, because I did the same things when I was your age” and I would always think “you were never my age age, you’re the dad”
Lastly, 'cause I could go on and on (you're welcome!), here I am with Mum and Dad at their "second" wedding in 1974 (big semi-scandal at the time, I'm the only one that didn't know it was their first). Wonderful example of my Dad's style and porn 'stache. And I look adorable. 1974-Mum-a...b84dae.jpg
It genuinely saddens me that when people look at photographs 100 years from now, they'll see garbage like their grandmother's trout pout and not at all like the elegance and grace of 'our' 100 years ago.
I enjoyed the post, so different, I truly love old, styles as compared to today, is blah !!!
