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They say truth is stranger than fiction, and they’re not wrong. We often look for entertainment on the big screen or media only to forget the biggest amusement park of wonder, exploration and ingenuity called human history.

So today, we are taking a look into the weird, bizarre and simply incredible world of the past thanks to the Twitter page “Weird History.” Boasting 186.4K followers, the account shares historical peculiarities not everyone knows today.

From pin boys lining up the bowling pins before automated machines to the fact that Harvard had three campus breweries, to a photograph of a boy experiencing television for the first time in 1948, these are the moments worthy of books.

Scroll down through the most peculiar collection of historical photos below, upvote your favorite ones and be sure to check out our previous curiosity-inducing posts about history in photos here and here.

#3

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Bree
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thank you to all of those courageous women. They paved the way for generations of women after them.

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Although we most often imagine old photographs as black and white, the history of applying color to photographs is almost as old as photography itself. But up until the mid-1940s, the vast majority of all photographs were black and white due to limitations in modern techniques and technologies.

The only way to make a color photograph was to color it by hand, which was a meticulous and lengthy procedure. This was naturally a very time-consuming process and only very few people were able to afford such a process and artifact, therefore we don’t see many colored photographs left from the earlier photography period.

#4

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Mistiekim
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Man, they really wanted us to know that was a ELECTRONIC COMPUTER in that box.

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These days, many historical photographs are colored thanks to the advanced technologies. There are numerous artificial intelligence-powered apps available for everyday users, and then there are professional photography renovators and colorists who work meticulously to bring the old photographs back to life.

According to Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures, colorizing historical photos appeals to us as modern people because we’ve grown up surrounded by colored images.

“In particular, we’re often attracted to historical photos that have been colorized because that process allows us to see details we might not notice otherwise—the subtle pattern of someone’s clothing, the scattering of freckles on another person’s face and arms,” she explained.

#7

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Sarah SH
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it disrespectful to say she looks like kind of a badass? Since I actually find that trait rather admirable?

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The professor explained that "it literally gives us a new perspective on history, fostering a greater sense of connection between ourselves as modern viewers and the historical subjects we are looking at. For instance, we might marvel that a pattern popularized in the Victorian era is fashionable again or realize that we have the exact same physical characteristics of an ancestor we never met!”

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Yaszek argues that colorization can also connect us to history in other, more surprising and creative ways as well. “As a science, colorization is about finding the appropriate hues, tones, and tints to add to a grayscale photograph. This involves intensive research in archives, online, and in conference with other historical experts—all of which, of course, gives the colorist that many more connections to the historical era they are researching.”

#13

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alias D.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For as long as humanity has been able to take pictures of cats we have been doing s**t like this

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#15

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Ozzzy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She's Ataturk's daughter, he adopted her and made sure she became an imported woman in the history. He knew woman could do anything back then!

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Having said that, Yaszek noted that colorization is more than just a science; it’s an art as well. “No matter how many written documents or colored artifacts a colorizer looks at, they can never be entirely sure that they’ve exactly replicated the actual colors of the items being photographed.”

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The professor continued: “As so a colorizer often combines information with instinct and data with desire to make color choices that feel both intellectually and emotionally authentic to the historical era in question.”

Moreover, the colorization of old photos reveals something more fundamental about representing memories. “It can also remind us that history is always subjective and that historical documents—including photographs—are not just objective representations of reality, but artifacts that are sometimes carefully staged and otherwise manipulated to present viewers with very specific representations of historical people, moments, and events,” Yaszek explained.

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The professor reminds the viewers that colorized photography has an interpretative aspect to it and we should be aware of it. “Because colorized photos have so clearly been manipulated by artists to tell a certain story, they remind us that the process of telling history always involves a certain amount of creative interpretation,” Yaszek said.

She added that it’s okay, “because it means that we all have opportunities to contribute to ongoing conversations about history and its relations to the present and future, much as we find in Reddit and other communities devoted to exploring the past through historical photography.”

#27

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Solidhog
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Avoiding chuckles by not listing the first two Viking words around the other way.

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#36

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Sarah SH
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least in these pictures he’s less whitewashed as the fair-skinned, handsome caucasian guy we all see in images of Jesus now. These seem more authentic in a way.

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#37

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Amanda Rose
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Revolutions were taking place all over Europe that year. My third great grandfather left Germany alone as a 15 year old that same year because of them.

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#40

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Sandy D
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just watched a show about it the other day. Apparently a lot is still buried under rocks and sand. It's so amazing tho, how ornate buildings are just carved into the rock. Beautiful, amazing, and done so long ago

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#42

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Stephanie Ladd
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Idk whether to talk about Cthulhu who's tattooed on my left hand, or hydra

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#43

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CD King
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It would be a shame if someone just stabbed him to death. All that poison for nothing lol

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Fembot
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The more I think about how this could have been made, the more amazing it becomes

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#46

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max and the expresso
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it didn't quit work as they lived mostly by the coast (where submarines weren't) and they could tell the difference between friendly submarines and enemy ones.

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#50

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Note: this post originally had 136 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.