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50 Important Historical Photos That Might Change Your Perspective On Things, As Shared By This Facebook Page
Ever since the invention of the camera in the early 1800s, photographers have documented everything, from wars and protest marches to scientific discoveries, and even space landings, allowing everyone to, in a way, "attend" these special events.
The Facebook page 'Old Photographs' has collected a wide selection of such interesting historical moments—big and small. So let's take a look at some of its top posts, after all, chances are, each of us will find something that will help us to see the past in a new light.
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#1
It’s that easy. Mutual respect.
SoloDadof3 2 years ago
Been saying this my whole life. My mother tried teaching me to be racist, I refused. And while I do teach my children about different cultures, I refuse to teach them two things, hate and racism!
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Serial pacifist 2 years ago
It is not respect. It is something even more beautiful - unburdened, pure friendship and joy.
VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
It matters greatly to people whose skin color makes them a target. Simply saying everyone is the same doesn't make it so. It just ends the conversation.
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Thumeka Sebaeng 2 years ago
I appreciate the sentiment but it's not this easy I'm afraid. Racially structured injustice and systems take more than friendship to dismantle. It takes risk and the willingness to put oneself on the line for those who are racially marginalised and victimized. Having a diverse group of friends can only go so far.
Kaiser 1989 2 years ago
Should be noted that other factors probably contribute to why some groups lag behind others than merely systemic racism. Generational poverty and some aftershock from past wrong doings, who's effects probably do reverberate through the ages, likely do play a part. However, like all animals, culture, genes, environment and social life also likely contribute to different outcomes between populations. Using systemic racism as the only factor is akin to believing in a literal interpretation of Genesis; it removes all personal responsibility by using an excuse that is statistically shaky at best and largely refuted at worst. Such a theory decries racism while being bigoted in brow beating an another group of people based on ancestry or skin tone.
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AspieGirl88 2 years ago
Children are so pure. They don’t take much notice of differences unless it’s pointed out & expressed as being abnormal (which it certainly isn’t in this instance). If only we could all keep such purity & innocence alive in our hearts, the world would be a better place. 🥺💖🤷♀️
Becky Samuel 2 years ago
As much as this is a sweet sentiment, it is not the truth. Science has shown that babies as young as three months old show a preference for faces that match the skin color of their family, and by 6 - 9 months will show strong racial biases. Pretending that babies and children are somehow "pure" is not helpful, we need to concentrate on finding ways to ensure that these innate and totally natural reactions don't persist later in life.
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TKA 2 years ago
I have lived in Stark County, Ohio, USA my whole life (I’m 41) and this just blows my mind, I know it is real and is horrible but it just never made a difference growing up or now. Like people are people. Nothing else too it. We weren’t taught or trained how to act with people of other color. We just accepted each other as equals and nothing else. We were all the same. No big deal.
Uncle Bud 2 years ago
I'm 56 and from South Carolina. Ever since I was a child I treated everyone the same. From 1st thru 3rd grade I went to a predominantly black school. I was the only white child in my class all 3 years. The children there didn't treat me differently because I was white. I learned as a child the art of mutual respect. This is a beautiful photo. I do agree with others who have posted that racism is taught and not something someone is born with.
SupernaturalPanda 2 years ago
I believe this ....no one is born racist...they are taught to hate .....we as a society need to change...we all bleed red.
Meredith Gossland 2 years ago
Everyone is potentially a racist. Fear of the other is an instinct. Those who go past that instinct and and embrace "the other" they have overcome that fear or are generally risk takers. Just like people will scream and panic when told there is a bug on them it is fear. On the racial spectrum with humans it is fear of unknown behaviors/ beliefs/ and fear that resources will be taken ( land, water, food etc.) Thus genocides of same races fear of different nationality, language and culture. RWANDA, INDIGINOUS VS INDIGI OUS, RUSSIA VS UKRAINE, CHRISTIAN PROTESTANT VS CATHOLIC IRISH. RACIAL FEAR OF THE OTHER BLACK VS WHITE for example also works in reverse and happens within same races. No one has to teach it...it is instinctual but can be fought slowly over time.
StarlightPanda! 2 years ago
Yeah. If I don't like someone, then it's purely due to how they treat others. The lack of good in their hearts.
Johan Schutte 2 years ago
The mere fact that people make finger pointing comments about racism as a result of this photo just proof their own prejudice attitude.
jeff belli slack 2 years ago
How do we get back to this? Such a simple question with a simple answer that in the 21st century has become so complicated.
Loraine D.G. MacGinness 2 years ago
BEFORE Political correctness raised its INTERFERING ways !!
Donna Partain 2 years ago
THIS PIC NEEDS TO BE POSTED AND RE-POSTED AND SHARED AND RE-SHARED HARD AROUND THE WORLD!
Susan Herbin 2 years ago
Achingly heartwarming! It should be blown up and plastered EVERYWHERE in the USA!
Susie Redus 2 years ago
Sometimes it is simply that children don't see the differences that grown-ups do. We sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" in Sunday school. That made it absolute fact for me. Do, one day when a little boy was thirsty, but the fountains he was trying to use would not work, I told him to use the one I just had, which worked perfectly. I was just a very young child in the mid-1950s, so I didn't have a clue about "Whites Only" signs and threw a screaming, stomping temper tantrum in the Sears, Roebuck and Company store. Everyone said he could not drink from the working fountain because of his color. I told them they were wrong because Jesus loved him equally. But no one would budge on that horrible stance. So, I let them have it with both barrels. I was very good at projecting sound, too. The only thing I regret about that day is that the lady and her son had to leave the store, immediately. I didn't understand that they could be in deep trouble for my outburst.
#2
On 27 January 1945 was the liberation of Auschwitz. To forget would be to say these faces, the faces of millions of others didn't matter. Never forget. Teach the children to remember.
Kayla J 2 years ago
Some of the survivors reunited in 2005. You can click on their names to get more of their stories and Gabi Neumann's who did extensive research including giving a background on the picture which included "Q: Tell me about the famous photograph in which you appear. A: The picture was taken a few days after liberation. I don’t remember exactly how many. It is a completely staged photograph. The Russians walked around the blocks calling on us to be photographed. My sister didn’t want to be photographed, so she isn’t in the picture. I was curious, and allowed my picture to be taken. You can see that they dressed us in prisoner uniforms that were a few sizes too big for us. Underneath the prisoner uniforms we wore the rags that we had. But because of this picture, I found my family. The Russians took my details and that’s how my mother found my sister and me later on." https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/through-the-lens/auschwitz-child-survivors.asp
#3
Just one of the guys. (WWII)
#4
Laughter has sounded the same throughout generations and languages.
(Unidentified woman and child, Jemez Pueblo New Mexico, by Jesse Nusbaum)
#8
Some of our favorite old photographs are merely everyday people in everyday life.
#9
A family portrait. Gainesville, Florida - 1900.
Source: State Library and Archives of Florida
#10
This picture circa 1900s shows knife grinders also called ventres jaunes (‘yellow stomachs’ referring to the yellow dust released by the grinding wheel). By laying face down, these yellow stomachs would save their backs from being hunched over all day. Workers were encourage to bring their dogs to not only keep them company but to act as heaters to keep them warm by having the dogs lie on their legs.
(Photo is from the web-site of, French knife maker, Claude Dozorme - ” The Wolf ”).
#11
A very moving caption:
"This is a mass burial at sea, on the USS Intrepid in 1944 following a kamikaze attack. I've never seen this photo, and I figure most of you probably haven't either. I posted so people can see, and remember the incredible sacrifices made on our behalf."
#13
There is modern beauty in this photograph of Lota Cheek taken 99 years ago.
#14
Animals bring a type of joy not found in other ways.
#16
When do we gain the inhibitions not present in our youth?
Jess 2 years ago
Omg the amount of times we all nearly died during our childhoods, it'll never be the same again, leaving home on your own/with friends in the early morning, someone's dog would be part of the gang, not coming home until dinner time and literally no contact with anyone's parents all day lol. Fantastic photo
#17
Timeless photography looks as beautiful now as it did when it was taken.
#18
Formal portraits rarely featured smiles, but they can be found in photographs of daily life during this period. (1912, South Carolina.)
#19
A routine repair.
#20
A boy makes a friend at the London Zoo, 1958.
#21
Dressed to impress. (1908)
#22
Who loved jumping off? (Even though mom told you not to.)
#23
Is it possible the architects had this in mind when they designed Grand Central Station? (1934)
#25
She was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke, but you would know her as the Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz".
#27
104 years ago this fountain in Detroit, Michigan was left running allowing it to build layer upon layer in to this 30 foot icy spectacle.
#28
This 1931 photograph captures the spirit of the season as Santa delivers presents to the children of an adoption home in London.
#29
A girl, a dog, a mule. From the 1921 silent film "Through the Back Door" staring Mary Pickford.
#30
1937: when even ice skating was done in a suit.
#31
March 1938: 70-year-old Mrs Elizabeth Arnold, believed to be England's only woman blacksmith, shoes a horse outside the 400-year-old forge in Walmer, Kent. (Photo by Fox Photos).
#32
They wear shoes and clothes with holes and dirt upon their faces, yet they are absolutely perfect. (1936)
#33
Fred Messer's life spanned three centuries. He was born in 1792, 16 years after the United States became a counrty and lived to see automobiles roll along roads, dying in 1907. (North Carolina.)
#34
Two innocent souls from days long ago.
Don't you wish you knew 2 years ago
Doggie is straight chillin... Little girl is not so sure lol
#35
A woman on a mission with her baguette and six bottles of wine.
(Paris 1945 - by Branson Decou)
#37
How homework was done before google.
MagicalUnicorn 2 years ago
I remember the days, although for me it was 90's s and early 00's :D
#38
An old photograph with a funny twist in today’s context.
#39
It took more than 15 years to take the Statue of Liberty from concept to reality. Construction is pictured here in 1884, less than two years before she was completed.
Serial pacifist 2 years ago
And it took only one presidential mandate to throw liberty into the gutter and revamp racism, bigotry, vandalism, and xenophobia.
#40
1890s Walmart. So many great details inside this general store. It was a time when you knew your grocer and they knew you. We have more, but we in some ways have less.
David Brown 2 years ago (edited)
When I was still in elementary school we moved from a decent size city to a very very rural town. It was like we had wound the clock back 30 years. It was a major culture shock.It had one chain fast food place and all the other ones were mom and pop joints.It had at that time the only bar I'd ever seen. It had one pharmacy which was mom and pop. And the gas station was the same way. The coolest thing about the whole town was the general store. It was like you'd see in movies. They made keys the old fashion way. If you wanted paint it had to be whatever color was in the can because they didn't mix custom colors. They had all types of gardening tools, seeds, fertilizer made from local chicken farm poop, and bee keeping supplies. It was one of the last stores that sold old style shotguns and rifles for hunting. And lastly, it had one of those old time rolling ladders that rode on a track mounted to the ceiling to get to the stuff on the shelves that went from floor to ceiling. Good times.
#41
Be thankful for what you have.
Be thankful for one another.
BonnyDK 2 years ago
This caption is beyond inappropriate. The photo is of street orphans who have no one living that can take care of them. There was a movement at the time in art including painting and photography to make the public aware of their plight. They probably had not eaten in days. No telling what happened to their parents. It was meant to teach empathy.
#42
Its not about where you are, its who you're with. (1945)
#43
Rush hour in Chicago didn’t look any better 104 years ago.
#45
Isn't it interesting that we meet some of the best friends we ever have within the first years of our lives.
(Photo by Edouard Boubat. Paris, 1952.)
Emmett O'Brian 2 years ago
I had an entirely different youth than suggested. Lot of bullying. No one I would consider a friend until middle school when I found the nerds.
#46
The less you have, the more you appreciate what you do have.
(Western North Carolina 1914-1917, from the William A. Barnhill Collection.)
LEGOPernille 2 years ago
My grandchild still hug chicken in todays world. They are the best pets....
#48
There’s nothing quite like getting hand delivered mail. (1900)
![Women Bootleggers And The Tools Of Their Trade. [prohibition - 1920 To 1933.]](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/62a85cb28e102_220236851_4455378977845466_1249660231395024665_n__700.jpg "Women Bootleggers And The Tools Of Their Trade. [prohibition - 1920 To 1933.]")
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What do you think ?
Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
This would have been so much better without those ridiculous (and sometimes insulting) captions.
Blue Pearl 2 years ago
Like seriously. We get it. We’ve all heard it a billion times now. Phone bad, internet bad, Nikola Tesla was a witch. Now shut the hell up for once and let us enjoy these fascinating historic photos.
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Amy Solomon 2 years ago
Loved these beautiful old photos. They give a person a feel for the time they were taken.
lunar eclipse 2 years ago
Imagine ,people a century from now, seeing pictures from today as "the 20's"
Pisco 2 years ago
Imagine their shame when they see tiktok and other modern atrocities
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GoddessOdd 2 years ago
This isn't the oldest family photo I have, but it's one of the most important. This is my great grandfather, standing with his regimental flag (I think) complete with bullet hole WHHM-Civil...18efef.jpg 
Peter Kelly 2 years ago
I always feel very melancholic when looking at such pictures, knowing that every single person and creature shown is long dead and, likely, not remembered. Certainly, there is a record of sorts that they existed at all, but there is nothing of their lives or their experiences. Such will befall us all regardless of how we might wish to leave our mark.
MizAdeleM 2 years ago
My Aunt Angela with Pungie the dog during WW2. She held down the fort in the family business while her brothers were off at war. Family business is still around, and Broadway Lock in South Boston is celebrating 100 years now. Aunt-Angie...b29b9e.jpg 
Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
This would have been so much better without those ridiculous (and sometimes insulting) captions.
Blue Pearl 2 years ago
Like seriously. We get it. We’ve all heard it a billion times now. Phone bad, internet bad, Nikola Tesla was a witch. Now shut the hell up for once and let us enjoy these fascinating historic photos.
Load More Replies... Amy Solomon 2 years ago
Loved these beautiful old photos. They give a person a feel for the time they were taken.
lunar eclipse 2 years ago
Imagine ,people a century from now, seeing pictures from today as "the 20's"
Pisco 2 years ago
Imagine their shame when they see tiktok and other modern atrocities
Load More Replies... GoddessOdd 2 years ago
This isn't the oldest family photo I have, but it's one of the most important. This is my great grandfather, standing with his regimental flag (I think) complete with bullet hole WHHM-Civil...18efef.jpg
Peter Kelly 2 years ago
I always feel very melancholic when looking at such pictures, knowing that every single person and creature shown is long dead and, likely, not remembered. Certainly, there is a record of sorts that they existed at all, but there is nothing of their lives or their experiences. Such will befall us all regardless of how we might wish to leave our mark.
MizAdeleM 2 years ago
My Aunt Angela with Pungie the dog during WW2. She held down the fort in the family business while her brothers were off at war. Family business is still around, and Broadway Lock in South Boston is celebrating 100 years now. Aunt-Angie...b29b9e.jpg
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