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Traveling back to the distant past isn’t possible and likely won’t be anytime soon. The closest thing we have to turning back the clock are vintage photographs that give us a glimpse of how life was back in the day.
The “Historical Snapshots” Instagram account is one of the many excellent resources for these pictures. It’s an homage to those who’ve lived their lives without many of the luxuries and societal changes we get to enjoy and experience today. The concise profile bio sums it up nicely: “Honor people. Understand the past.”
These are some of the standout images from the page. Enjoy today’s travel back in time!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
"Love Came To Me, And I Was Not Afraid To Marry The Man I Loved Because Of His Color." - Helen Pitts Douglass
RELATED:
#2
Portrait Of A Navajo Native American. Taken By Carl Moon, Circa 1906
#3
American Soldiers Pay Tribute To The Fallen Animals, 1918
Horses, mules and donkeys were used during WWI to transport ammunition and supplies to the front. They did so through the horrors of shellfire and appalling conditions. Eight million of them died during the war.
The invention of photography in 1839 changed the way people lived. All of a sudden, humans had the ability to capture a single moment through a still image and immortalize it for future generations.
As the Modern Museum of Art points out, photographs can help shape our understanding of different cultures, their history, and, most importantly, the people who appear in them.
#4
Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor Feeds A Two Week Old Orphan Kitten
Frank, a marine during the Korean War, found the kitten and named her Miss Hap because “she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Premislaus de Colo 1 month ago
Absolutely had to chceck, and yes, there is a happy ending for both him and the kitten, although they went their separate ways
#5
Portrait Of A Woman And Baby, Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico In 1914
#6
Ah-Weh-Eyu (Pretty Flower), From The Seneca Nation, 190
Since we’re on the topic of attention-grabbing vintage photographs, the iconic “Migrant Mother” is a stellar example. Taken in 1936 during the Great Depression, it features an impoverished woman in a pea-pickers camp in California, alongside her children hiding their faces.
It was such a moving photograph that it urged the federal government to send 20,000 pounds of food to the camp.
#7
Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner And Blanche Osborn, Women Airforce Service Pilots During Wwii, Pictured Here As They Leave Their Airplane,
#8
Before She Became Famous As An Actress In All In The Family, Maude, And Golden Girls, Bea Arthur Worked As A Truck Driver And Typist In The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve During Wwii
#9
O-O-Be, A Kiowa Native American, Circa 1895
“Man on the Moon” is another well-known snapshot that captures one of the most significant human accomplishments in history. It’s a photograph of astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s first steps on the moon’s surface by the great Neil Armstrong.
This 1969 picture shows the lone Aldrin standing with the vast expanse of space as his backdrop. Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t deter today’s skeptics who doubt that the event ever happened.
#10
Portrait Of Two Women. Zanzibar, Circa 1900
#11
Red Cross Nurse And Rescue Dog, Wwi
#12
Portrait Of An Inuit Woman And Child, Circa 1912
The 1945 flag-raising photo on Iwo Jima will always be legendary, especially for military veterans, historians, and loyal Americans. Photographed by Joe Rosenthal, it shows a group of US Marines planting the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi to mark its capture and signify America’s victory in World War II.
Despite doubts about its authenticity, the picture never fails to spark feelings of patriotism, especially among those who served during the war.
#13
Edward Bouchet Became The First African American To Earn A Phd In The U.S. When He Completed His Dissertation In Physics At Yale In 1876
#14
A Snapshot Of Life From Nebraska, 1910
#15
Liberated Survivors Of Auschwitz, 1945
We’d also like to hear from you, readers. Which of these photos stood out to you the most? How do they make you feel? Let us know in the comments below!
#16
Portrait Of Selika Lazevski, Believed To Be A Horsewoman Who Rode At Nouveau Cirque In Paris
#17
Portrait Of A Navajo Woman, Circa 1904
#18
London, 1899. Photo By Leonard Misonne
#19
Portrait Of Flora Stewart. She Was Said To Be Vivacious With A “Remarkably Retentive Memory.”
Willem Andries Oosterhof 1 month ago
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/06/04/flora-stewart-londonderry-nh
#20
Elizabeth L. Gardner Of Rockford, Illinois, A Wasp (Women's Airforce Service Pilot) Pilot, Circa 1940s
#21
Portrait Of Billie Holiday And Her Dog Mister, NYC, Circa 1947
#22
Portrait Of Hattie Tom, An Apache Native American, 1899
#23
Sergeant Karen Hermiston, Or “Hermie” As People Called Her, Was Courageous And Determined, Earning A Place In Canadian History As The Only Official Female Photographer For The Armed Forces To Work Amidst Combat During World War II
Final score:
112points
#24
Kaw-U-Tz, A Caddo Native American, 1906
#25
Roger Williams University In Nashville, Tennessee, 1899
Lauren Wilder 1 month ago
The land this school sat on is now Vanderbilt University. On the night of January 24, 1905, at ten o'clock, a mysterious fire destroyed Centennial Hall. The school reopened, but on May 22, 1905, another fire of unknown origin leveled Mansion House. The American Baptist Home Mission Society closed Roger Williams University and subsequently sold part of the land to realtors and the rest to George Peabody College for Teachers by 1911. Realtors subdivided the land for resale, with covenants on the deeds that restricted sale to any "person of African descent."
#26
Portrait Of The Fisk University Class Of 1888
Multa Nocte 1 month ago
Incredible for the time and especially incredible for this being in the southern United States.
#27
Portrait Of Lillian, Cora And Luvenia Ward. Taken In Worcester, Massachusetts, Circa 1900
#28
Portrait Of A Sami Family, Norway, Circa 1890
#29
Portrait Of Nora Oo-Teen'a, An Inuit Woman. Alaska, 1903
#30
“Jitterbugging On A Saturday Evening,” Mississippi, 1939
#31
Portrait Of A Young Girl And Child. Japan, Circa 1908
#32
Iron Thunder, Crow Eagle, Fool Thunder, Slow White Buffalo, All Holding Peace Pipes, Dakota, Circa 1880s
Multa Nocte 1 month ago
This is a good looking group of men, but the fellow in the front is extra fine. Just my humble opinion. ;-)
#33
Portrait Of Chaiwa, A Tewa Native American, Circa 1906
#34
An Unidentified Soldier, Australia, Ww1
#35
Paris, 1900
Ece Cenker 1 month ago
This is during the World Exhibition. The buildings were pavilions of various countries.
#36
Portrait Of A Woman. Ontario, Canada, Circa 1890
#37
Portrait Of A Family. Manzanar Relocation Center, 1943
Bernd Herbert 1 month ago
If someone still doesn't know, Manzanar was one of ten concentration camps in the US were Japanese Americans were incarcerated during WWII. What a shame.
Eastendbird 1 month ago
George Takei and his family were in one of those camps.
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Der Kommissar 1 month ago
When these people were released from the camps, their houses and possessions had been taken by the government or individuals, probably their neighbors.
Sand Ers 1 month ago
For some of them, their neighbors had maintained and protected their homes. But their businesses were long gone.
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K. LNU 1 month ago
My dad (US born) and his parents (sister was in school in Japan - 19 years older than my dad), and his older brother (14 years older, also US born) were taken from their Seattle home, put into the Puyallup horse stalls and then after a few months, moved to Minidoka in Idaho. My dad's brother enlisted in the US Army - just missing the infamous 442d by a couple of months - at the age of 17. No one really checked his actual birthdate. My dad was just a little kid (probably about the age of the boy in the photo) and he said he remembers it was cold in the winter, and really hot in the summer, but he had friends to play with. Then one day, they all woke up and the guards were gone, and the gate was opened. The Japanese Americans had no way to get back to Washington and Oregon. The US moved them out by train and military vehicles, but they just left them there on their own.
Douglas Tucker 1 month ago
Those who still believe that the U.S. government's WW2 wholesale internment of certain American citizens was completely necessary really need to do a simple research of the facts. With that said, a collective fear of "Them people" and what they could do or have done to us "Real Americans" was an issue in the 1940s and it has not gone away as our recent 2024 election has clearly shown. And believe the ones who tell you that history does at times repeat itself.
Sparkle Bean 4 weeks ago
those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat... it seems humans will forever be repeating these horrible genocides. They happened long before written history and are continuing today. We drum up new names for the same old atrocities but they are what they are and it's nothing good or forgivable.
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Jane No Dough 3 weeks ago
During both world wars Germans and German-Americans were sent to camps on US soil. Far fewer than any other ethic group though, because racists don't know what to do with themselves when the supposed "enemy" looks just like they do. Same for Italians and Italian-Americans. The U.S. held indigenous peoples in camps throughout the 1800's. Native Alaskans were also rounded up and had their homes burned to the ground during WW2 'to keep the Japanese from sneaking in through Alaska'. In the US the history we are taught in public schools is completely WHITEwashed!!
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EJN 3 weeks ago
What many people do not realize is that the Japanese Americans relocated to camps lost all of their things, their work, their homes, everything. If a neighbor who was not Japanese American took care of their property while they were away, sometimes they were able to return at the end of the war and have somewhere to go, but most families lost everything. The government did not compensate them for anything that was lost.
#38
Portrait Of A Union Army Soldier From The U.S. Civil War And His Family, Circa 1864
#39
A Spinner And Her Spinning Wheel. County Galway, Ireland, Circa 1890
#40
Five Year Old Warren Bernard Runs Out Of His Mother's Grasp To His Father, A Soldier From New Westminster, Canada Who Was Going To Fight For Canada In Wwii
#41
Portrait Of A Family. Florida, Circa 1900
#42
Portrait Of Cotton Mill Workers In Georgia, U.S., 1909
John Dilligaf 1 month ago (edited)
that woman in the middle looks like she's lost all her f*cks and is about to give someone a beatdown
#43
An Apache Woman, 1888
#44
Mother & Son, Ireland, Circa 1890
#45
Women Making Fun Of Sign At Beach Requiring Full Bathing Suits. Miami, Florida, 1934
#46
Florence Was Thirty-Two Years Old, A Mother Of Seven Children, Living In Nipomo, California With Her Children And Partner, Jim Hill, 1936
"I worked in hospitals. I tended bar. I cooked. I worked in the fields. I done a little bit of everything to make a living for my kids."
#47
Photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston In An 1896 Self-Portrait Of A "New Woman," Taken In Her Washington, Dc Studio
#48
Portrait Of Martha Perkins, 1901
#49
Warsaw Ghetto, 1943
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What do you think ?
Elladine DesIsles 1 month ago
The Ellis Island photos are all dated 1905. Does anyone know if they are part of a particular collection, or the work of one photographer? My great-grandmother came through Ellis Island en route to the Canadian prairies, but not until 1910.
Jude Laskowski 3 weeks ago
My grandparents came through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, but I don't have an exact date. They settled in NYC.
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Bernd Herbert 1 month ago
It's always amazing to see how much has changed just in the past 100 years
Cindy Brick 1 month ago
Somebody LOVES textiles! I really enjoyed this post for that reason...
Elladine DesIsles 1 month ago
The Ellis Island photos are all dated 1905. Does anyone know if they are part of a particular collection, or the work of one photographer? My great-grandmother came through Ellis Island en route to the Canadian prairies, but not until 1910.
Jude Laskowski 3 weeks ago
My grandparents came through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, but I don't have an exact date. They settled in NYC.
Load More Replies... Bernd Herbert 1 month ago
It's always amazing to see how much has changed just in the past 100 years
Cindy Brick 1 month ago
Somebody LOVES textiles! I really enjoyed this post for that reason...
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