Pictures hold something truly special—a speck of time that once was and shall never be again. They’re the closest thing we have to a time machine, allowing us to glimpse through a window of film and into the past. 

Although technology has come leaps and bounds since the very first photograph, and we’ve gotten used to its magic, it still feels like a pirate treasure to come across old pictures from a time not-too-long-ago. From close families, to celebrities, there’s something for everyone, and the Facebook group called “Historical Pictures” is just the hub of it all. 

Today, we’ll be featuring some of the photos the members of the group have shared, and hope that it’ll tickle your fancy to go dig out your own photo albums. So, dear readers, I invite you to look at this photograph (brownie points if you read that in Nickelback), well a couple dozen of them, upvote your faves, leave some comments, and have a good time!

If you’re craving another Bored Panda article that’s similar to this, I got you covered: here’s one and here’s another. Now let’s get into it! 

More info: Facebook

#1 Camberley Kate, And Her Stray Dogs In England. She Never Turned A Stray Dog Away, Taking Care Of More Than 600 Dogs In Her Lifetime. (1962)

Image credits: Bushra Mushtaq

Our history as humans is as long and complex as math felt back in 10th grade. I passed by the skin of my teeth if you’re curious. Sadly, we only discovered the magic of photography in the 1800s, the first photo ever dating back to 1827. Can you imagine how incredible it would have been to see moments from the 1500s or 900s? 

We’ll just have to settle for pictures from the past couple of centuries, which is still longer than any human would have survived. The members of the “Historical Pictures” Facebook group have been sharing their finds, be it pictures of family moments, portraits, or well-beloved celebrities, bringing us all closer to the past.  

#2 “I’d Rather Eat Pasta And Drink Wine Than Be A Size 0.” ~Sophia Loren, 1965

Image credits: tacollama82

#3 My Sweet Sixteen Self. I Will Be Eighty In February 2023

Image credits: Mary Ann Wall

A natural question comes up—why are we so drawn to old photographs, regardless of the fact that we’ve most likely never met the people, known the places, or experienced anything close to what their lives were like. Well, it’s for all those reasons, ironically enough! It’s a learning opportunity, a true touch upon history, and the fleeting moments of time. 

As someone wrote on The School Of Life, it’s kind of a bittersweet discovery. “We realize that we want to live inside photographs, not the life they purport to tell us about,” they said. An intriguing kind of nostalgia, a craving to have been there to witness the events, to see that one special person again, to be a child without worries all over again. 

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Image credits: Ron Peters

#5 First Nations Husband And Wife, (A. Ross, 1886)

Image credits: Native American Culture Regions

#6 Sophia Loren, Circa 1955

Image credits: Old Photos

Each picture tells a story of the moment it was taken. The people, the location, the fashion sense, the actions, the pose, the grimace. All of it builds a picture, yet it is only speculation what happened to those people before or after the event of the photo being taken. Those gaps are then filled with stories and photographs before and after the initial one, but nothing really paints a full picture. 

Maureen A. Taylor, when speaking on the importance of photography as a whole, notes 3 points. The first one was conveniently made at the very beginning of this section—every picture tells a story. Each one is a time portal. And each one is an artifact. Your old photos are ancestral artifacts just like furniture and silver, and they’re worth just as much if not more. 

#7 An Officer Halts Traffic To Make Way For A Cat Carrying A Kitten Across The Street, 1925

Image credits: Old Photos

#8 Three Young Ladies Posing With A Friend, 1930

Image credits: Old Photos

#9 This Innuit Girl Descending Into Her Home, An Ice Igloo

This powerful image transcends time, and continues to go viral over 70 years later.

Helen Konek is 91 years old now. But she was 17 when photographer Richard Harrington asked to take images of her family near Arviat, Nunavut. This one is in the massive igloo her father Pipqanaaq built.

Image credits: Explore Native American Culture

But why do we feel a sense of happiness when looking at these pictures? According to multiple bits of research, it has to do with happy chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin. A new study from CEWE has found that people find looking back at old photos even more relaxing than meditating. The activity triggers feelings of primary and positive emotions such as joy and love, but it also strengthens our memory and relationships. 

Leading UK behavioral psychologist Jo Hemmings says: “Taking the time to look back on our treasured memories can be truly beneficial for our wellbeing as it can help to evoke feelings of positivity and happiness. Because of this, and especially at times like this, we should take more time to appreciate and look back on them.” 

#10 Richard Lasher Was On His Way To Ride His Dirt Bike When Mt. St. Helens Erupted In Front Of Him (1980)

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#11 “Girls In The Windows”

In 1960, photojournalist Ormond Gigli assembled 43 women, dressed them in refined, colorful garb, and situated them in 41 windows across the facade of the classic New York City brownstones. Years later, the image ended up being his most famous artwork.

Image credits: Héla Chargui

#12 Cheryl Browne, First African-American Contestant For The Title Of Miss America In 1971

Cheryl Adrienne Browne was born in New York City in 1950 and studied dance at LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. After high school, she moved to Decorah, Iowa to study dance at Luther College. After winning the Miss Decorah contest, on June 13, 1970, she beat 19 white contestants to win Miss Iowa, making her eligible to compete for the 1971 Miss America crown.

Cheryl became the first black woman to compete for the Miss America title, the first African American contestant to make it to the final, even though competition rule number seven, instituted during the 1930s, which read: “Contestants must be of good health and of the white race,” had been abolished 30 years before in 1940.

Image credits: Historical Photos of Women's Stories

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Image credits: Weird History

#14 Bride Leaving Her Recently Bombed Home To Get Married, London, Nov 4, 1940

Image credits: Amila Prasanna

#15 A Young Woman Posing For A Studio Portrait, Kentucky, 1890-1910

Image credits: Old Photos

#16 A Roman Toddler’s Footprint In A Red Clay Tile, Imprinted As It Was Drying ~2000 Years Ago

Image credits: Museum of Artifacts

#17 Portrait Of A Young Grumpy Girl From The 1850s

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#18 Titanic Survivors Marjorie And Charlotte Collyer In New York Immediately Following The Sinking Of The Liner In 1912

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#19 My Grandmother From 1947

Image credits: Charlie Carlson IV

#20 The Champion Watermelon Eater At The 4th Of July Celebration In Brooklyn, 1935

Image credits: Ben Levin

#21 Fun Before The Internet, 1960s

Image credits: Ben Levin

#22 Irish Seaman And Antarctic Explorer Thomas Crean Photographed In 1915 Aboard The Endurance In Antarctica During The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition Of 1914–1917 LED By Ernest Shackleton

The Endurance was trapped in ice for 492 days and sank, so the 28-man crew had to use lifeboats to reach the uninhabited Elephant Island. Crean was one of 6 members of the crew to make the 800 miles (1300 km) journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia in the small-boat James Caird to seek rescue for the rest of the crew. Once they reached South Georgia after 17 days at sea, 3 of the men, including Tom Crean, trekked across the island to a whaling station on the north side of South Georgia. There they were able to organize rescue efforts for the 3 men left on the south of the island and the remaining crew on Elephant Island. The entire crew of the Endurance returned home without loss of life.

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#23 The Baby In This Picture Is My Grandmother Born In 1893. Along With My Great Grandmother, Great Great Grandmother And Great Great Great Grandmother

Image credits: Lori Linley Liebetrau

#24 Bedouin Couple In Front Of Their Tent, Adwan Tribe. 1898. (Colorized By Frédéric Duriez)

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#25 Dolly Parton In The Late 60’s

Image credits: Keep It Cult

#26 Soldier Coming Home To His Daughter After WWII, 1945

Image credits: Old Photos

#27 A Photo Of My Grandfather, Clyde Hensley, Lived Deep In The Appalachian Mountains Of Western North Carolina

Lived off the land, kept bees, grew tobacco, dried it, twisted it, made molasses. You name it.

I always knew him as happy and content. For no special reason.

True Grit.

1912-2002

Image credits: Benji Barnes

#28 “Les Nouvelles Meirveilleuses”. In The Spring Of 1908, Three Women Walked Onto The Longchamp Racecourse In Paris And Jaws Dropped

he elite society event was known for debuting the latest couture creations to the public, but no one had seen fashion quite like this before. Dressed in blue, white and havane brown creations, according to newspapers, spectators called the three women a “monstrosity”, accused them of being semi-naked and showing revolting *décolletage. *It was these three dresses however, which would forever change fashion that day and launch the twentieth century silhouette. As for the designer? Well, no one really bothered to remember her name…
But perhaps you might like to know who it was. Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix was her name, a young Parisian designer who had taken over her mother’s long-established couture house and was starting to gain popularity in turn-of-the-century Paris for her lightly corseted dresses featuring minimum boning and more elastic material…
Long before Lycra or Spanx came along, she soon began making dresses made from stretchy elastic silk jersey, outlining the hips and thighs and slimming the figure. To debut her creations to society, she hired three beautiful models and chose the Parisian racetracks of 1908 as her catwalk.

Image credits: Mark Loader

#29 Cicely Tyson And James Earl Jones

Image credits: African American History

#30 Christmas Dinner, 1936. Dinner Consisted Of Potatoes, Cabbage And Pie

Image credits: Old Photos

#31 Nora Washington With A Catfish She Caught With A Cane Pole, No Less In The Colorado River, Bastrop, Texas 1950s

Image credits: Brent Peltier

#32 My Grandparents, Poland 1952

Image credits: David Balage

#33 My Great-Great Aunt Helen Taken In 1913 When She Was 16 Years Old. She Passed Away At 90 Years Old In 1987

Image credits: Heather Helen Leiterman-Su

#34 Two Gentleman From The Early 1900s

Image credits: Old Photos

#35 Unpacking Mona Lisa After The End Of World War II In 1945

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#36 This Is Economy Class Seating On Pan Am 747 In The ‘60’s

Image credits: Brent Peltier

#37 This Is Jim Thorpe. Look Closely At The Photo, You Can See That He’s Wearing Different Socks And Shoes

This wasn’t a fashion statement. It was the 1912 Olympics, and Jim, a Native American from Oklahoma represented the U.S. in track and field.

On the morning of his competitions, his shoes were stolen. Luckily, Jim ended up finding two shoes in a garbage can. That’s the pair that he’s wearing in the photo. But one of the shoes was too big, so he had to wear an extra sock. Wearing these shoes, Jim won two gold medals that day

Image credits: David Kahiu

#38 Charging An Electric Car In The Garage, New York, 1911

Image credits: Old Photos

#39 Lucille Ball. A Timeless Beauty

Image credits: Brent Peltier

#40 A Little Boy And His Mom

Image credits: Dorothea Lange

#41 This Boy And His Dog Were Photographed By Photographer J. E. Williams In New Athens, Ohio In The Late 1890s-Early 1900s

This was another one that was cracked but the damage wan’t in critical areas and I was able to clone some image from the photo taken at the same time. From my glass negative collection

Image credits: Memory Lane Photos

#42 Happy New Year 1907

Image credits: Old Photos

#43 John Lennon And Yoko Ono Waiting For The Maid To Make The Bed So They Can Continue Protesting Against The System 1969

Image credits: Things of the past

#44 Statue Of Liberty Towering Over Paris Just Before It Was Disassembled And Shipped To New York, 1886

Image credits: Brent Peltier

#45 Women Grocery Shopping In The 1960s

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#46 A Ghostly Yet Mesmerizing Image From 1900

Image credits: Old Photos

#47 Silent Film Actress, Delores Costello, Drew Barrymore’s Grandmother, 1928

Image credits: Brent Peltier

#48 Little Twins With Their Dog On Porch

Image credits: Old Photos

#49 Portrait Of Lillian, Cora And Luvenia Ward. Taken In Worcester, Massachusetts, Circa 1900

Image credits: Show off Africa

#50 Benton County, Tennessee, 1930’s

Caption
Carl Mydans was a photographer that worked some for the federal government during the Great Depression. He took several heart breaking pictures of rural families, especially in the South. This family was photographed near Benton County, Tennessee. He titled this one “Rural Mother

Image credits: Travis Chumley

#51 London, England In 1890

Image credits: Ben Levin

#52 Freakily Accurate Newspaper Article From April 18, 1963

Image credits: The Vintage News

#53 An American Mother And Daughter Hold The American Flag In The Early 1900’s

Image credits: World Historical Pictures

#54 Little Girl Tending To The Care Of Her Dolls. Early 20th Century Glass Negative

Image credits: Paul Holbrook

#55 A Couple Of Victorian Travellers, 1890s

Image credits: Old Photos

#56 Mother And Daughter Photographs From 1900

Image credits: Old Photos

#57 A Group Of ‘Victorian Street Urchins’ Taken In Birmingham, England Circa 1898

Image credits: Victorian/Edwardian photography and Art Appreciation

#58 Mother And Son, Ireland, 1890

Image credits: Old Photos

#59 A Casual Portrait Of A Woman Smiling, 1880

Image credits: Old Photos

#60 Ron Howard’s Wedding To His (Still) Wife Cheryl In 1975–With Henry Winkler

Image credits: Charles Tranberg, Author

#61

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#62 These Photos Shows The 16-Year-Old German Soldier Hans-Georg Henke After He Was Captured By The Us 9th Army On April 3rd, 1945

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#63 Marilyn Monroe Circa 1954

Image credits: Ricardo Carvalho

#64 Winona Ryder, Jodie Foster & Julia Roberts, 1989

Image credits: 1 9 9 6

#65 A 19 Y O Teddy Roosevelt At Harvard

Image credits: Gale Durham

#66 Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s Grandmother, Cradling Her In 1926

Image credits: Peter R Grant

#67 Taken In 1972 Us Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant

Image credits: Naomi Harris

#68 Circa 1910, These Children Were Playing With Their Little Wagon But Stopped Long Enough For This Picture To Be Taken

Image credits: Paul Holbrook

#69 A Coal Mining Dad With His Children, 1945

Image credits: Old Photos

#70 Café Waitresses Serving Chips In Liberated Paris, 1940s

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#71 Teenage Sisters Gertrude And Ursula Falke. Germany, 1906

Image credits: Old Photos

#72 Rolling Stones Concert At Jfk Stadium In 1978…. Something Bands These Days Have Never Been Able To Duplicate

Image credits: Debbie Rullman Hill

#73 Portrait Of A Young Woman From Denmark. Photographed In 1895

Image credits: Old Photos

#74 A 23-Year-Old John Wayne, Circa 1930

Image credits: The Vintage News

#75

Image credits: The Vintage News

#76 Another Look At Barbara E. Tripp, Age 3, On The Steps Of Her Home In New Bedford, Mass., September 10, 1916. Glass Negative Photo From The William H. Tripp Collection

Image credits: Paul Holbrook

#77 Reckless Kids Having Fun!

Image credits: Old Photos

#78 John Adams Was Born In 1745. He Was The Earliest Born Human To Have Been Photographed. A Shoemaker, He Died In 1849, Aged 104

Image credits: History Hit

#79 The Hoover Dam Under Construction In 1934

Image credits: Amila Prasanna

#80 Mulberry Street, New York City, 1900

Image credits: Old Photos

#81 Even The Window Cleaners Wore Suits 100 Years Ago

Image credits: Old Photos

#82 Elvis, His Father Vernon, And His Grandmother Minnie Mae, 1959

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#83 Northumbrian Miner At His Evening Meal, 1937

Image credits: Old Photos

#84 Photo Of A Family Gathered Around The Fireplace In Their Home

The small cabin home was located in Loyston, Tennessee. The community of Loyston no longer exists as it was flooded when Norris Dam was built.

Image credits: Lewis Hine Photographs for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

#85 28 Students Of A One-Room School At La Forge Farms. Missouri, January 1939

Image credits: Old Photos

#86 The Interior Of A Commercial Plane In 1936. The Plane Belonged To Imperial Airways, The First British Commercial Airline

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#87 Old Photos Of All Hallows’ Eve (Late 1800s + Early 1900s)

Image credits: Shëyna Hackett

#88 Waltis Kilburn, His Wife And 14 Children Pose For A Photo At Their Home In Leslie County, Ky 1949

Image credits: Tim Fleming

#89 Roadside Camping (With A Great Auto-Tent), 1920

Image credits: Old Photos

#90 My Grandfather Around 1908 Wayne Michigan

Image credits: Jeff Cullen

#91 These Daguerreotype Portraits Show The Oldest Generation Of People To Ever Be Photographed, 1840-1850

Many of these people were born in the 1700s and some of them even lived through the American Revolutionary War

Image credits: David Anii Okafor

#92 A Police Officer Transporting A Prisoner In A Holding Cell In 1921

Image credits: Lynn Marie

#93 Home Prices In 1950s

Image credits: History In Pictures

#94 My Great-Great Grand Parents And Their Family

My maternal great-grandmother is on the far left, dark dress, with the bow in her hair. Time period is mid to late 1800’s. She lived to the ripe old age of 103

Image credits: Joe Briggs

#95

Image credits: Norita Linda

#96 Left To Right: Cher’s Mom, Georgia Holt, Cher, Georganne Lapiere, (Cher’s Sister) And Sonny Bono Having Fun In The Sun! – March 1972

Image credits: Charles Tranberg, Author

#97 Agents Dump Seized Liquor During The Prohibition In The 1930s

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#98 Safety Standards In 1960s….no Way!!!

Image credits: Panagiotis Saramantis

#99 1924 My Dad At The Top With His Sister And Brothers, Irish Section Of The South Side Of Chicago

Image credits: Rusty Walker

#100 Dinner Party At The Hotel Astor. New York City. 1904

Image credits: History Season

#101 The Rms Queen Elizabeth Pulling Into New York With Service Men Returning Home After The End Of World War 2, 1945

Image credits: Now You See More

#102 Most Likely A Father And His Offspring. Glass Negative Photo From Around 1910

Image credits: Paul Holbrook

#103 Witches From 1875

Image credits: Old Photos

#104 A Woman On The Frozen Mississippi River At St. Louis, Missouri In 1905

Image credits: Old Photos

#105 Us Cavalry Soldiers Pose In Front Of A Tree Known As The “Grizzly Giant” 1900. The Tree Still Stands

Image credits: Historic Photographs

#106 Pioneers Traveling In A Covered Wagon And A Carriage, Probably In Colorado, 1880s

Image credits: Old Photos

#107 Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, And Rob Lowe In A Publicity Still For The Outsiders, 1983

Image credits: Things of the past

#108 This Is Mrs. Robert E. Lee. The Child Is Their Son, Robert E Lee Jr

Image credits: Ernie Mcgowin

#109 The Second Class Saloon, Nome, Alaska, When Owned By Wyatt Earp And His Wife Between 1887 And 1901

Image credits: Sid Miller

#110 In The Late 1800s Early 1900s, It Was Tradition That On The 31st Of December, The Wife Would Kneel In Front Of Her Husband And Apologise For Everything She Got Wrong During The Course Of The Year

Image credits: Brent Peltier

Source: boredpanda.com