Amazing Historical Photos That Offer a Unique Perspective on the Past

Family genetics can often be really strong, which is why you might notice that a child has their parents’ features or that two siblings look alike. Even if you go a few generations back, you might see signs of your features in your ancestor.

This person overlapped their profile with their great-great-great-great grandmother’s whose picture was taken back in the 19th century. It looks like the pair still look a lot alike, even centuries apart!

Today, it’s easy to share pictures of yourself with your friends and family. All you have to do is snap a picture and upload it to social media.

For another perspective on their teen years, though, don’t be afraid to check out the family photo albums! This person just celebrated their 80th birthday but she also took a moment to share a picture of her when she was only 16 years old. What a put-together picture!

Fashion has always been a widely debated topic. What’s appropriate for a certain situation and what comes down to personal preference can vary from situation to situation.

In retrospect, these women don’t look too shocking. Yet, Les Nouvelles Meirveilluses in the spring of 1908 shocked the watching crowd at Paris’ The Longchamp Racehorse. While these outfits don’t look too scandalous now, they were called a “monstrosity” by some at the time!

When you read about history, you might not read about everyday life. After all, the people in this picture weren’t creating some ground-breaking invention, for example.

On the other hand, it seems like this person directing traffic was more than happy for the chance to help this mother cat. This photo was taken in 1925 and it’s just what it looks like – this officer is stopping traffic so that this cat and the kitten she’s carrying get across safely.

There are some sights that will always tug at your heartstrings, and a dog lost and without a home is definitely one of those things. This is a picture of Camberley Kate, taken in 1962.

The dogs surrounding her are strays that she took in. She was known to never turn a dog away and, during her life in England, she took care of 600 dogs or even more. We’re sure these dogs appreciated it!

At first glance, you might think that this photo is an ad or something carefully designed in PhotoShop. This is actually more practically pulled off than you think. Ormond Gigli was a photojournalist and the person who put this together.

Gigli found 43 women to model for the photo and carefully dressed them in colorful dresses and organized them with the entire front of a New York City brownstone as the set. Girls in the Windows was one of his most famous pieces.

The Miss America Pageant is something that’s familiar to almost anybody, even if you aren’t interested in watching pageants play out. Like many things, there are a few key achievements that have happened over the course of Miss America’s history.

In 1971, the cast of the pageant included Cheryl Browne who would debut with the title of the first African-American contestant as Miss Iowa, beating out 19 white contestants to earn the title.

There are some celebrities that are so famous, you hear about them when they’re at their height and they manage to stay known decades later.

Dolly Parton is definitely one of those stars who haven’t gone down in popularity after decades in the spotlight. In fact, you see her so much now, you might not really recall what she looked like when she was younger. This picture was snapped of the music queen in the late ’60s.

There are some eras that really make you think of glitz and glamour. Hollywood has always had a certain charm to it to the outside world.

After all, not many people can think of anything more glamorous than fancy gowns, bright lights, and glittering jewelry. One star that really made their name in Old Hollywood was Sophia Loren. Here she is back in 1955 – Loren was really representing beautiful fashion in this photo!

Before you would go see movies with award-winning dialogue, people went to see movies that featured no dialogue at all. Yet, stardom was still around at the time.

If you were a bit of a cinephile in the 1920s, you might have seen this actress, Delores Costello, come across the screen. The actress was celebrated for her roles in silent films. If you want a bit of Hollywood history, she’s also the grandmother of current-day actress, Drew Barrymore!

When you think of friends in your household, you might count your pets. After all, who doesn’t like snapping a picture of your pet at its cutest?

As it turns out, that’s a human behavior that predates social media. Why wouldn’t it? After this dog learned a new trick, the three children he lived with couldn’t help but see an opportunity for a cute picture. It was originally taken in 1930 but remains cute to this day.

Nowadays, when you want to get a picture of yourself, you just have to whip out your phone. Still, you want to look your best.

But back in the day, if you had to go get your portraits taken rather than just snapping one on the go, you’d really go all out. This woman was dressed to the nines for this portrait session. It’s not clear when the photo was taken but it was likely between 1890 and 1910.

A lot of pictures of the past really give us an idea of what people looked like, what they wore, and more. After all, the photo evidence is right in front of our very eyes.

This person’s name was Helen and she was only 16 years old in 1913 when this photo was taken. She would live to be 90 years old in 1987, more than 70 years after this photo was taken.

There are plenty of families that see multiple generations in the span of a lifetime. It seems that it didn’t take long for family photos to catch on. This person had a photo from 1893.

Here, you can see their grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and great-great-great-grandmother, all in one photo! In this small image, they managed to catch all four generations right after this person’s grandmother was born.

There are some things that simply don’t change no matter where you are in history. For instance, kids love having fun when really given the chance.

This picture actually captures a 4th of July celebration and, in particular, these kids during a watermelon-eating contest. As you might be able to tell from his gigantic grin and empty watermelon rind, this boy was dubbed the champion of the watermelon eating contest in Brooklyn in 1935.

When you see painted portraits of monarchs in history, they often look regal. After all, you’re seeing them when they’re paying someone to make them look their best.

When it comes to a photo, though, the image will capture you as you are. This little girl’s photo was taken back in the 1850s and it’s a little different from what you normally see. It seems like she’s completely bothered by the fact that she has to pose for this.

There are some times that you just can’t retrieve pictures from. No one had cameras back in Ancient Rome, right? Still, that’s not the only way someone can leave their mark.

While there may not be ancient Roman photographs, you can see photographs of evidence like this. It doesn’t take too much looking to notice that a child managed to step in this clay before it dried. Now, we can look at it more than 2,000 years later!

There are some things that seem like they always have been a certain way. You wouldn’t expect too much space on a plane, would you? After all, there are plenty of stories of people being crammed together on flights.

Maybe not so much back in the 1960s, though. The picture you see here is a group of passengers flying in Economy Class on a Pan Am 747 flight. That’s a lot more space than most people are used to today!

There are some pictures that seem like they could only happen if things line up just right. You have to take a second and wonder how the photographer managed to do that.

There’s clearly something going on in the background of this otherwise idyllic image. That’s because photographer Richard Lasher was riding his dirt bike in 1980 when he looked up and saw this wall of smoke. It was caused by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

There are some images that you look at and you can only guess that they came out of a movie. You’d find this effect haunting enough for any pirate movie.

Believe it or not, this image is as real as every other one that we’ve looked at so far! Taken in 1900, the picture captures a ship emerging from a thick fog. That’s what gives this picture its ghostly but natural effect.

A lot of photos capture a person’s face or maybe an image of their family. However, not every single picture tells us too much about the subject’s personality.

This family photo, or set of them, is really endearing for how open and honest they are. Rather than just strict poses, we get to see a few shots of this mother-daughter duo in 1900 showing each other a bit of affection and having fun throughout the shoot.

The first thing you probably notice about this picture is that this bride-to-be couldn’t look happier! She even has a bouquet of lilies for her big day.

However, you might also notice that the person leaning out of the window hasn’t opened it themselves and there’s quite a bit of rubble in the yard. The bride is off to London in 1940 on November 4th after taking this picture outside of the family’s recently destroyed home.

There are some events in history that seem almost like something from a movie at times. When you hear Titanic, you might even picture Leonardo DiCaprio before the ship itself.

Yet, it’s important not to forget that this was a real tragedy. This picture captures an image of two of the survivors of this fatal ship sinking back in 1912. Their names are Marjorie and Charlotte Collyer and the picture was taken shortly after the tragedy took place.

When you see celebrities, they’re often all done up and ready for the cameras to capture them. Still, they can’t be “on” all the time.

Without things like a cellphone or even disposable cameras for quick photos, you might not have seen many of these unexpected behind-the-scenes appearances from celebrities. Someone snapped this more relaxed photo of Marilyn Monroe back in 1954. that’s not how you usually see her in photos!

There are some things that we still do that have been around for millennia. For instance, people have been fishing for dinner for centuries.

This picture shows an impressive catfish that Nora Washington caught in the Colorado River as it ran through Bastrop, Texas. This historic photograph was taken in the 1950s and if you look closely, you can see that Washington made her fishing rod out of a cane pole.

There are some photos that really capture a moment in a family’s day. We’re guessing that this bench got a lot of use before it became a photoshoot prop. These three surely sat together on many mornings before this one.

The picture you see here was taken in Worcester, Massachusetts, back about in 1900. As for the three kids sitting next to one another in near-matching outfits, that’s Lillian, Cora, and Luvenia Ward.

When you want to go for a night out, you might want to make sure your clothes, accessories, hair, and makeup are absolutely perfect before you hit the town.

The way that your grandmother gets ready now might not be exactly how she got ready when she was your age. We don’t always get the chance to see what that might have looked like. However, this person knew their grandmother’s style, thanks to this photo of her in 1947.

There are some members of the family that you can’t forget. So, you want to make sure that they’re included in some pictures for your family years later, right?

This boy made a bit of a mark on history when he was photographed with his dog. The two were photographed by a photographer named J.E. Williams somewhere in the later 1890s or early 1900s. The photoshoot took place in New Athens, Ohio.

There are some things we all have to do from time to time. After all, how are you going to get groceries if you don’t take a little time to grocery shop? How are you going to eat?

While strikingly different in a few remarkable ways, the general scene of a group of people grocery shopping in the 1960s isn’t all that unfamiliar. These women just wanted to get their shopping done and move on with their days.

There are some things kids tend to love and have in common – no matter what decade you look at. For instance, they’re full of imagination and like to explore their environment, given the chance.

That’s what it seems like this group was doing here. Taken back in the ’60s, there’s not much different here from a modern scene save for the black-and-white finish and the fashion. We wonder if there are still children doing stuff like this here decades later.

There are some people that you get used to seeing your whole life and, obviously, you picture them how they are or how they were the last time that you saw them.

This picture gives this family a chance to see what their grandparents looked like as a young couple, riding around town together. The image was taken of the two of them in 1952 while they were in Poland. This is a great one to have in the family photo album!

Unfortunately, fair game and equality haven’t always been as valued in history as they should have been. For instance, the Boston Marathon wasn’t always open to women.

Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon in 1967. It wasn’t an easy road either. There was no good sportsmanship here when some of the men in and organizing the race tried to stop her from finishing at all. Still, she went on to finish the race.

Electric cars have recently been in the news a lot. It seems a bit futuristic when most of us have been used to the combustion engine for quite some time.

This technology must be brand new to get so much attention, right? Well, there have actually been some ideas for electric cars for quite some time. Believe it or not, this is a photo from 1911 and that is an electric car charging in a New York garage.

When you look at photos from the past, you don’t always get to see all the details. After all, many are in black and white, so the color of things can be a bit of a mystery.

With modern technology, though, we aren’t as left in the dark about this. Thanks to Frédéric Duriez, this picture was taken in 1898 and got a second debut in full color. It shows a Bedouin couple from the Adwan tribe posing for the photographer outside of their tent.

There are some professions that have been around for decades. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the positions are exactly the same over the years.

For instance, as fashion and style norms change, the uniforms that employees wear may change as well. This picture shows a couple of flight attendants hard at work on a Southwest Airlines flight in 1972. Today, you probably see flight attendants in many different uniforms on flights.

There are some celebrities that seem like they manage to withstand the test of time. For goodness sake, there are still movies being made about Elvis Presley – even though his height is decades past.

You’re probably used to seeing pictures of The King in his iconic jumpsuits or boogying across the stage. However, this picture taken in 1959 captures him back at home with his dad, Vernon, and his grandmother, Minnie Mae.

It’s not just musicians that you don’t always see when they’re really young. Some actors hit their stride when they’re older and are more recognizable later in their careers.

We often think of John Wayne in his Western hits but this picture captured him a bit before he became an audience favorite in the genre. The actor is only 23 years old in this picture back in 1930. You almost don’t recognize this famous face at first!

There are some things that are magnificent to see, no matter what year they happened in. This picture shows a – quite literally – shocking image that’ll surprise you no matter when you see it.

The man sitting calmly under this calamity is none other than famed scientist and inventor, Nikola Tesla. The thing that’s causing this shocking effect is his magnifying transmitter. We can only guess he’s jotting down some notes as the magnificent magnifier goes to work.

There have always been people who look for more of a challenge and an adrenaline rush than others. These three were definitely looking for a bit of a rush.

The three of them were probably after showing off their skills too. If you think that it looks like they’re really high up, you’re right! This photo shows the trio doing a trick on the top of the Empire State Building back in 1934.

There are some changes throughout history that definitely took getting used to when the new way of things started to officially take effect. There are some changes that had to take effect all at once.

For instance, everyone has to be on the same page when it comes to traffic laws. However, there’s a bit of a learning curve to some changes. This picture shows people trying to adapt in 1967 when Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right.

There are some structures that you see so often or they’re simply so iconic it’s hard to picture a locale without them. For instance, can you picture New York without the Statue of Liberty?

This picture shows the statue while it was still a work in progress. This historical perspective is really one that you can’t get today and it shows just how much hard work went into this iconic emblem. It was still in Paris back in 1884!

There are some movies that really gain a following after they’re released. Alien is one of the most famous science-fiction movies that’s ever been released. This is a behind-the-scenes picture of Bolaji Badejo.

The design student played his only acting role in the film. Even if you’re a huge fan, you might not recognize him without looking at some behind-the-scenes footage. Badejo played the Alien itself!

Throughout history, the famous pieces that you see from the Old Masters in art weren’t always completely safe where they are – it takes a lot of work to preserve them.

The Louvre has long been a popular home for some of the most famous pieces of art in the world. The Mona Lisa simply wasn’t safe at some points in history, especially sitting in The Louvre. This picture shows the moment it returned to the museum.

There are some jobs that you see people doing that you really don’t envy. This is one job that you definitely wouldn’t want if you were even a little afraid of heights.

It looks like these four are just free climbing their way up the structure! If you want an idea of how high up they are, these men are painting part of the Eiffel Tower in 1932. Now’s not the time to look down!

Not too long ago, people didn’t have the convenience of remote controls for their TVs. Instead of being able to change the channel from the comfort of their couch, folks were left to either get up all the time or, if they were lazy, sit through a program they didn’t want to see.

The third option was to use a child as the designated remote control – this unpleasant task was usually reserved for the youngest sibling.