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83 Fascinating Historical Photos That Tell Stories A Textbook Never Could (New Pics)
Learning human history can be a tricky thing; you’re most likely never going to learn everything there is to learn. In school, we only learn the broad strokes of the past, but throughout our lives, we have the opportunity to delve into history more deeply.
The largest history server on Discord, “World History,” is a community of enthusiasts “who live and breathe history.” They even have a dedicated subreddit where other corners of the Internet can come and see rare photographs and stories they might not have come across before — “Historycord.” Here is a selection of some interesting historical pics you, Pandas, can enjoy as well!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Inner Mangolian Child - By Han Chengli (2003)
RELATED:
#2
Princess Alexandrine Irene Of Prussia (1915 – 1980) The Oldest Daughter And Fifth Child Of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, And Cecilie Of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She Was Born With Down Syndrome But Adored And Never Hidden By Her Family
#3
Written In 1918 By An Anonymous Suffragette
#4
Korean War Marine With His Kitten
#5
The Inquiring Photographer Asks: Do You Approve Of Parents Turning A Daughter Out Of Their Home Who Has Had A Child Out Of Wedlock? June 1925
barkbark25 3 weeks ago
I like these responses. My mom was of the opinion that an unwed daughter should be thrown out and declared d**d to the family. I ended up not having children at all.
#6
Ella Fitzgerald Sitting In A Houston Jail Cell After She Was Arrested For Singing To An Integrated Audience, 1955
Marnie 3 weeks ago (edited)
You know, I was born in the late 60s. And I never knew about Jim Crow and all that c**p and how racist some people still were until I was in my 20s!! I knew slavery had ended in the 19th century and thought it was just all fixed at that point. I knew some people were "prejudiced" still, but beyond that, I didn't know. My next door neighbors were black and we were good friends with them. My much older sister married a man who was part black in the 70s and I never heard anyone mention it. (It didn't occur to me that it was anything to think about until I was in my 20s.) They should have taught about Jim Crow and all of that in school. Then again, I got exactly one year of history (and it was just American history) in school and they barely went past the 1920s.
#7
A British Blacksmith On Hms Sphinx Removing The Leg Irons, 1907
#8
A Bedouin Woman From Tunisia In 1907
#9
Negotiations Between The Zoo Director And Escaped Chimpanzee. Belgrade, 1988
#10
In November 1990, Life Magazine Published A Photo Of David Kirby Being Comforted By His Father. The Photo Is Considered To Have Changed The Face Of AIDS
#11
Unknown 2 Women Behind Bushes Share A Kiss, Circa 1900s
#12
Tintype Of A Gentlemen Posing With His Daughter, Circa 1870s
#13
Case Report Of Brooklyn Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children 1903-04
#14
Photobooth Shot Of A Mixed Couple, 1950s
#15
In The Fierce Battles Of Iwo Jima In March 1945, Pvt. Francis M. Hall Kneels Alongside His Faithful Doberman Pinscher, "Rascal”
#16
A Woman In The 1950s Standing Next To A Redwood Tree
Elladine DesIsles 3 weeks ago
I have photos of my mother as a toddler among the redwoods, in 1950. She and my grandparents were traveling from Edmonton to Pasadena for my grandfather to attend graduate school.
#17
One Of 16 Million "Mercy Dogs" Training To Recover Injured Soldiers,1917
Ace 3 weeks ago (edited)
The 16 million refers to estimates of the total number of animals used by the armed forces of all sides through the First World War, including camels, pigeons, donkeys, mules and horses. The latter 3 equines were by far the greater in number, probably over 95% of the total, while total dogs, most of which were not used for the purpose shown here, probably only around 50,000 (0.03% ) or less.
#18
Family Posing For Their Portrait, Circa 1900s
#19
Japanese-American Family, Saitama, Japan, 1947
#20
A Former Prisoner Points Out The Most Brutal Guard. Germany, 1945
Der Kommissar 3 weeks ago
The guards who stayed behind were executed by troops or k****d by the inmates
#21
Anne Frank's Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member. 1960
#22
Mexican Federal Soldier Says Goodbye To His Daughter At The Train Station Before Going To War, During The Mexican Revolution, 1915
#23
Young Iranian Woman Handing Out Anti-Shah Regime Manifesto In Tehran, 1979
#24
Willie Nelson With His Beloved Grandmother Nancy. She And Grandfather Alfred Stepped Up To Raise He And His Sister As Their Parents Took Off When Willie Was Infant
#25
Brigitte Helm As A Robot On The Set Of Metropolis, 1927
#26
Glass Negative Double Shot Of A Young Lady, Circa 1890s
#27
Three Ladies Walking On Streets Of Saigon Vietnam 1960s
#28
Life In Little Italy, New York, Early 1900s
#29
Pilot Victor Vizcarra, After Being Evacuated From A Jungle Landing Site. After Being Hit And Ejecting, His Flame-Engulfed F-105 Fighter-Bomber Passed Beneath Him As He Parachuted And Crashed Into A Mountain. Vietnam War, 1966
#30
The Zenith Space Commander (1950s/60s). One Of The First TV Remotes That Didn’t Need Batteries. It Used Ultrasonic Sound Produced By Hitting Aluminum Rods With A Small Hammer Inside The Device
Michael Largey 3 weeks ago
We had an early remote that worked on air pressure. You squeezed a bulb connected by an air tube to the TV.
#31
“Nurses Of A Field Hospital Who Arrived In France Via England And Egypt After Three Years Service." August 12, 1944
#32
Two Japanese American Women Posing In The Snow 1940s
#35
Chinese American With A Note That Says He Is Chinese, Not Japanese, To Avoid Harrasment At Work, 1940s
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
Chinese, Japanese (I'm not going to finish the rhyme 🤨 dirty knees...) - either way, people are people, just like all of us. I really can't be doing with any sort of xenophobia.
#37
On June 14th, 1941, The Soviets Began Mass Deportations In Estonia, Latvia, And Lithuania. Over 130k People Were Forced Out Of Their Homes & Taken To Siberia Until 1953
#39
German Non-Commissioned Officer (Nco) Of The Colonial Schutztruppe Forces Alongside An East African Woman Around 1910 In German East Africa
#40
Last Image Of Simo Häyhä, A Finnish WWII Veteran And The Best Sniper Of All Time, Before His Passing At The Age Of 96 In 2002
#41
A German Student Taking Part In A Racial Education Class, Germany, 1943
#42
When Dad Tried Doing Mom’s Work For A Weekend: A 1956 Life Photo Essay
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
Okay. Do NOT lift a baby by one arm like that, not even for the sake of a humorous photo. You run a high risk of popping apart the underdeveloped elbow joint and that's only *one* of the risks of harm.
#43
The Gymnasium On The Titanic's Deck, 1912
Michael Largey 3 weeks ago
No sign of rowing machines. Practice on them would have come in handy later.
#44
As Fellow Troopers Aid Wounded Buddies, A Paratrooper Of A Company, 101st Airborne, Guides A Medical Evacuation Helicopter Through The Jungle Foliage To Pick Up Casualties During A Five-Day Patrol Of An Area Southwest Of Hue, South Vietnam, April 1968
#45
An Iranian Child Soldier During The Iran-Iraq War, 1980s
#46
Tatiana Nikolaevna, Tsar Nicholas II’s 2nd Daughter Photographed At Age 17 In 1914
#47
Maid Makes The Braids For The Daughter Of Her Employers, February Of 1956
#48
Teens Protest The Arrival Of The Horace Baker Family, The First African American Family In All White Delmar Village Folcroft, Pennsylvania, 30 Of August 1963
#49
60 Yr Old And His Family Of 3. 1946, Kentucky
#50
German Empire Soldiers Posing For Their Photo, 1900s
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
Well, the Germans didn't k1ll *all* the black people they ruled... Links follow. Herero and Nama gen0cide etc.
#51
Frederick Douglass And Wife Helen Pitts At Niagara Falls, 1884
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
If you don't know about Frederick Douglass, look him up. Total legend.
#52
Glass Negative Of A Family With Their 5 Children, 25 Of May 1919
ScarletRos 3 weeks ago
The parents look really old but they’re probably only in their thirties.
#53
War Couple Posing For Their Studio Photo, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Circa 1940s
#54
The First Years After The War. Life In Italy In The Late 40s - Early 50s
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago (edited)
Nah, nah, nah, that's not Italy in the early 1950s - 'cos that's Freddie Mercury in the early 1980s, surely? 😉🤣
#55
In 1982, Susie Phipps-Guillory Sued Louisiana To Be Legally Considered White After Learning Her Birth Certificate Said “Colored” Because She Was 3/32 Black. She Lost And The State Refused To Change Her Birth Certificate
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 weeks ago
South African ID numbers (kind of like American social security numbers) used to use the last 3 digits to identify your 'race'. When I renewed my ID in 2003 they crossed out the original numbers and changed them. ... It took another 23 years for the change of ID number to be reflected on my payslip. That's the Education Department for you!
#56
American Marines Use A Flamethrower In The Vietnam War, 1967
Joe Publique 3 weeks ago
One of the worst jobs. Super dangerous, slow and heavy, priority target, range around 40 yds, fuel tanks easily go boom.
#57
A Soldier Specializing In Grenade Combat In Quang Nam Is Waiting For The Enemy To Appear (Quang Nam Is A Central Province Of The Republic Of Vietnam)
#58
Antoine Dubuclet Jr., A Wealthy Black Sugar Planter, Served As Louisiana’s First Black Treasurer
#59
Marie Azelie Haydel, The Last Owner Of Whitney Plantation, And One Of Her House Girls
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
That's Marie Azelie Haydel: one of Lousiana's most notorious sl@ve-owners, responsible for the indescribable suffering of enormous numbers of human beings whom she and the law viewed as nothing more than chattels, alongside one of her powerless victims. 'Marie Haydel was one of Louisiana's largest slaveholders by the time she died in 1860.' Link follows.
#60
Croatian Ustaše Guards Ordering A Jewish Man To Remove His Ring Upon His Arrival At Jasenovac Concentration Camp, Yugoslavia, 1941-1942
Der Kommissar 3 weeks ago
Croatian, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian nazis immigrated to the USA, lying on their applications.
#61
US Paratroopers Train Outside Of Panama City During The US Invasion Of Panama, 1990
#62
Lt. Audie Murphy Was The Most Decorated U.S. Solider In World War II
#63
A Hurried Sleep On The Front Lines
#64
1931 Cast Of The Famous Comedy Shorts Our Gang (Later Known As The Little Rascals) Posing Alongside Their Real-Life Mothers
#65
Stalin's Mugshot From The Files Of The Tsarist Police In St. Petersburg, 1911
persephone134 3 weeks ago
He was very handsome as a young man. (Check out the Wikipedia page with pictures of him from 1902.)
#66
A Polish Woman Holding A Photo Of Her Husband At The Opening Of A Katyn Memorial In London, 1976
#67
Col. Robert Gould Shaw, Commander Of The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Made Famous By The Movie “Glory” In 1989. This Photo Was Taken In May 1863, About 3 Months After Assuming Command Of The 54th And A Week Or So Before They Shipped Out From Boston To Beaufort, SC. He Was 25 Years Only Old
#68
Weary Marines Just Off The Front Lines After 23 Days On Cape Gloucester, January 1944
#69
Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi Holding A Falcon. I Couldn't Find The Date Of The Photo
#70
A Vichy French Gendarme Greets A German Officer In Front Of The Arc De Triomphe, In 1941
#71
The Platt Family Case: White Family Labeled As Black By White Sheriff In 1955
#72
Dec.1943. An Italian Family Sits Down To Dinner In Tarrytown, New York As Documented By Eliot Elisofon A Life Magazine Contributor. The Photo On The Wall Is Of A Son Kia During The Invasion Of Sicily
#73
81 Years Ago Today, American Gis Rest Behind An M5 Stuart Tank Near Germersheim, Germany. (March 25, 1945)
#74
A U.S. Army Air Force B-25b Mitchell Bomber, One Of 16 Involved In The Doolittle Raid, Takes Off From The Flight Deck Of The Yorktown-Class Aircraft Carrier Uss Hornet (Cv-8) For An Air Raid On The Japanese Home Islands, On April 18, 1942
Forrest Hobbs 3 weeks ago
Those planes could take off from an aircraft carrier. They couldn't land on one. Link follows.
#75
1955. "The One I Marry" Teenagers Are Asked Their Preferences About A Future Spouse
#76
Haitian Dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier And His Wife Michèle Bennett On The Way To The Airport To Flee Haiti After A Popular Uprising, 1986
#77
This Week In 1945: A Gi Of The 4th Infantry Division Dug Into His Position On A Hillside Overlooking The Prum Valley As The Division Pushed Ever Closer To The Rhine River. The Village In The Background Is Weinsheim
#78
Joseph Stalin, His Henchman Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin's Daughter Svetlana (In Beria's Lap) And Abkhaz SSR Leader Nestor Lakoba, 1931
#79
Two Soldiers Of The Brazilian Expeditionary Force Lunch On Top Of A M8 Greyhound Armoured Car, 1944
#81
"Teamwork: Riflemen Draw Sights On A Jap Hillside Position As A Flame-Throwing Tank Shoots A Tongue Of Flame At The Enemy. This Photo Was Found In The Camera Of A Wounded Combat Photographer." Okinawa, May 11, 1945. (Usmc Archive Photograph And Original Caption)
#82
Lt. Cmdr. Gerald R. Pearson Displaying The “Spoils Of War” After The Battle Of Iwo Jima, March 1945
#83
Auschwitz Guards Having A Day Off
Michael Largey 3 weeks ago (edited)
"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain" - William Shakespeare, "Hamlet" Or worse.
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Rebecca O’Donnell 3 weeks ago
Forrest Hobbs, thank you so very much for all your informative comments. The information added a depth that the photos didn’t show.
Load More Replies... Rebecca O’Donnell 3 weeks ago
Forrest Hobbs, thank you so very much for all your informative comments. The information added a depth that the photos didn’t show.
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