Fascinating Old World Photos That Give a Rare Glimpse Into the Past

We’ve all heard the expression, “Life is a journey.” Like any journey, life is best appreciated and easily understood when we look back at the ground that has already been covered. Doing so can also help us better prepare ourselves for whatever challenges may lie ahead.

During the Second World War, the United Kingdom experienced frequent bombings and air raids by the Germans. Most of these attacks took place at night, which made it unsafe for many people to sleep in their own beds.

The person in the photo is not a Roman soldier but a member of the Achille Serre Ladies Brigade in action. Achille Serre, a Frenchman who came to England with his wife Eugenie in 1870, pioneered the “dry cleaning” method in the UK.

In the 1940’s, Dallas was in a tizzy about the sudden fad of “scantily-clad” female carhops. In an effort to level the playing field a group of men decided to step in.

On May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, CA.  brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald opened a barbecue joint at 14th and E streets that eventually became the burger-and-fries restaurant that propelled the fast-food concept worldwide

This photo shows an entire house being relocated, a fairly common practice in the United States in the late 19th century up to the early 20th century. Some families resorted to doing this as they lacked the resources to build a new house where they moved.

In the late 1960’s Scandinavian Airlines offered ‘smørrebrød’ service in their Economy Class. Scandinavian Airlines stated in their ads, “On our planes you won’t find rubbery indigestibles, wrapped in cellophane.”

As women’s hemlines rose in the 20th century, so did the demand for stockings. In the 1920s and 1930s, stockings were typically made of silk or rayon. By the early 1940s, however, nylon stockings had become more popular.

This Mom got clever when she decided she needed to take a moment for herself. While needed to take a second for herself, she used what she had within arms reach to keep her baby safe, an empty trash bin.

There’s nothing like a nice swim at the beach to cool off on a hot summer’s day. Unfortunately, this is also when beaches tend to get super busy. Changing rooms are most likely overcrowded, and the ones that aren’t are probably too far away.

During the Industrial Revolution when alarm clocks were neither affordable nor reliable, many people in Britain and Ireland relied on men and women known as “knocker-uppers” to wake them up every morning so they wouldn’t be late for work.

Learning how to swim requires lots of patience and hard work, not just on the part of the student but the teacher’s as well. Any parent who’s ever taught their child how to swim can surely attest to that.

Many people would be horrified by this sight today, but babies in cages suspended from city apartment windows were a fairly common sight in many large cities across America and in the UK in the first half of the 20th century.

The airline industry has evolved so much over the years. For one, stewards and stewardesses are now usually referred to as flight attendants. Flight attendants’ age restrictions have also been modified, and policies that prohibited marriage and pregnancies have largely disappeared. 

The first hair dryer was invented by French stylist Alexander Godefroy in 1890. His invention – which consisted of a bonnet that was attached to the chimney pipe of a gas stove – required several hours of use to achieve the desired effect.

This image features a german general named Anton Dostler. He’s being tied to a stake for his execution by a firing squad. It was taken in Italy in December of 1945.

The Robo-Vac, a precursor to today’s autonomous vacuum cleaners, was unveiled in 1959 as part of Whirpool’s Miracle Kitchen of the Future display at the American National Exhibition in Moscow. Like today’s robot vacuums, the Robo-Vac uses sensors to find its way around a room.

Tupperware is a brand of kitchen products – mainly plastic food containers – developed by Earl Silas Tupper in 1946. In the 1950s, Brownie Wise, a single mother from Florida, started throwing “Tupperware parties” to promote and sell Tupperware products to friends and neighbors. This caught the attention of Tupper, who then made Wise Tupperware’s vice president of marketing.

From the 17th to 20th centuries, landless or poor peasants in Russia would crowd along river banks to await the arrival of barges or mid-sized vessels. These peasants known as burlaks would then be paid a small amount to haul the boats upstream using their bodyweight.

Drive-in cinemas may be an uncommon sight these days, but they were a vital part of American culture in the 1950s. Drive-ins offered customers the ability to watch a movie from the privacy and comfort of their cars. The first drive-in cinema was opened in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1915.

Before we were uploading our filtered faces to Instagram and we carried high-tech cameras in our phones, cameras were bulky, slow shuttering, and heavy. This selfie, with an antediluvian analog camera, is being held at arm’s length with the help of two men.

Roller skates were first introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin, but it wasn’t until the invention of the “rocking” skate by American James Plimpton a century later that roller skating became a popular activity.

Milkmen were once a common sight in neighborhoods throughout the US, much like paperboys or mailmen. Close to 30 percent of US consumers opted to have milk delivered to their homes in the early 1960s.

Before traffic cameras became commonplace, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) used little cars known as catwalk cars to patrol New York City’s tunnels. Pictured here is a catwalk car in the Lincoln Tunnel, which connects New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan.

We still have a long way to go in helmet innovation and protecting athlete’s brains from the constant impact of clashing skulls. Still, when this photo was taken, the problem was much greater.

During the Victorian Era, there was a grim tradition that involved family photos. Death was unfortunately very common with diseases such as tuberculosis so family members would pass away tragically young.

Decades before Apple introduced the iPod in the early 2000s, companies like General Electric, Marantz, Panasonic, and Sony produced a device known as the boombox. These transistorized portable music players delivered sound through their large speakers and an amplifier.

Video games have come a long way since the launch of the first consumer video game, Computer Space, in the early 1970s. What was once a niche hobby has now become a highly-profitable industry, with estimated annual revenues of well over $100 billion.

Before television was invented, the radio was the dominant home entertainment medium. During the so-called Golden Age of Radio from the early 1920s to the 1950s, families gathered to listen to the radio in the evening.

In 1886, Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden, had more telephones than any other major city in the world. A year later, Stockholms Allmänna Telefon AB ordered the construction of an 80-meter telephone tower in the city, allowing the connection of 5,500 telephone lines.

Flying via the Concorde aircraft was expensive, but it could take you to your destination in style. The aircraft also traveled at twice the speed of sound. This means that a traveler from London could easily get to New York in just three hours, much faster than the seven hours it would take to travel between the two cities on other aircrafts.

Radar has been an absolute game-changer in terms of helping defense forces prepare for and respond to an attack by enemies. Thanks to radar, it has become much easier to know the location and speed of an incoming object, whether it’s aircraft, ships, or even missiles.

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character that was created by Walt Disney in 1928. Mickey, created as a replacement for another Disney character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, has since become one of the world’s most beloved fictional characters and has long been a popular fixture at Disney theme parks.

In the 1930s, Texaco introduced the Texaco Doodlebug, a futuristic-looking tanker truck. While the Doodlebugs did what they were supposed to do – carry gasoline to and from gas stations – they were also a publicity stunt to modernize Texaco’s brand look.

In the early 20th century, the streets of the city of Berlin were cleaned with the help of electric-powered heavy-duty wagons that roamed the city. Believe it or not, electric-powered vehicles have been around a lot longer than you think.

The Lancia Stratos Zero was a concept car by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. First unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in 1970, the Stratos Zero was designed by famed car designer Marcello Gandini and featured a 1.6 L Lancia Fulvia V4 engine.

The first individual diving suits were designed in the early 18th century when ships carrying valuable treasures were often lost to the ocean on dangerous journeys. By the early 20th century, diving suits had become more sophisticated, making it possible for explorers to dive deeper into the ocean. 

In the early 20th century, airships were believed to be the future of commercial air travel. The US, Germany, and Britain developed large airships that were equipped with amenities like lounges, dining areas, and passenger cabins.

Magicians of the old world such as Harry Houdini (pictured below) thrilled audiences for their world-bending tricks. What is interesting about this time in human history is the way Houdini took up arms against the Spiritualist movement of the time, which had mediums claiming to be in touch with the spirit world.

A monocycle is a motorized version of the monowheel, a single-track vehicle that was invented in the late 19th century. Rather than sitting above the wheel as in unicycles, the rider is seated either within the wheel or right beside it.

The Lingotto building in Turin, Italy was inaugurated in 1923 and originally housed a Fiat factory. The cars were built on an assembly line that went up through the building. Finished cars were then tested on the test track at the building’s rooftop level.

The Fairchild K-17 was a large camera designed by Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation and manufactured under license by Folmer Graflex for the US Air Force. These cameras were mainly used to do aerial photography during the Second World War.

The Rotor is an amusement park ride that was designed and patented by Ernst Hoffmeister, a German engineer, in the late 1940s. The ride is a large barrel that is rotated at 33 revolutions per minute. Once the barrel reaches its full speed, the floor retracts, leaving the riders stuck to the wall due to the force.

Bibendum, also known in English as the Michelin Man or Michelin Tyre Man, is the official mascot of the French tire manufacturing company Michelin. First unveiled to the public in 1898, Bibendum was created by French cartoonist Marius Rossillon, also known as O’Galop.

This photo of two people playing tennis on the wings of an airplane may seem fake, but this did happen. Two daredevils, Gladys Roy and Ivan Unger, performed this stunt 3,280 feet above Los Angeles in November of 1925.

Swedish physician and orthopedist Dr. Gustav Zander envisioned a world where physical injuries or diseases could be rehabilitated and healed through mechanical means, going against the notion that the use of drugs was necessary for treatment. 

The microcar, the smallest type of car, first appeared on the streets of Europe after the Second World War. Microcars typically had three or four wheels and were usually equipped with an engine that was smaller than 700 cc. Microcars quickly became popular across Europe as they were cheap and had greater fuel efficiency than regular cars.

In 1860, then-presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln had a problem: many voters had no idea what he looked like, and the media and his political opponents often made fun of his looks, describing him as “vulgar,” “uneducated,” and “grotesque in appearance.” As a solution, he turned to photographer Mathew Brady to manipulate his photos that would later be distributed to the public.

Before home video game consoles took off, gamers flocked to amusement arcades where people played arcade games, including video games, pinball machines, redemption games, electro-mechanical games, claw machines, billiards, air hockey, and more.

Before the internet, the library was everyone’s go-to place for research. People would spend countless hours browsing the shelves and searching through books, journals, and magazines to find the information they needed.

Nowadays, most of us slap on a pair of sweats or leggings and hustle out the door to go through the long preflight process that we’ve all become accustomed to. However, before air travel was standard–during the golden age of commercial aviation, people dressed to the nines for their travel.

Before planes, people traveled via ships. During the end of the 19^th century, many emigrants traveled on iron hulled steam ships to the Ellis Island port in the United States. These transatlantic liners would carry 1900 people, with about 500 of those being. employees, and about 1100 steerage passengers. The rest were “cabin class” passengers.

Prior to most everyone in modern civilization having a cell phone at their fingertips, phone booths were a standard part of the cityscape. To make a call, you inserted your coin and dialed your desired call through the rotary dial.

Penny-farthings were the first machine to be called a “bicycle” and were popular during the 1870’s and 1880’s. The large front wheel provided high speeds (since every rotation of leg gave considerable distance) and comfort (owing to the large wheel providing greater shock absorption).

In today’s modern world, high-performance cars can have upwards 700 horsepower, however in the 1800’s it was just a few horses and a buggy as the primary means of transportation.

The first ever New York Fashion Week took place in 1943 and  took place with the nearing of World War 2. Though fashion shows had been a part of culture and society, the New York Fashion Week was the first of its kind in grandeur and scale.

Corsets would typically be worn as under or outer wear in an effort to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, support the back and make the woman stand up straight.

The first NASCAR race took place on February 21^st, 1949, at the Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina. There were about 13,000 fans on hand watching the 200-lap race.

In July of 1950, NASA launched their first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. At the time the rocket reached a new record height and went even higher than the current orbit of the International Space Station.

Niagara Falls is the celebrated natural phenomenon that has awed generations of viewers for decades. This photo from the early 1900’s shows the Niagara Falls waterfall completely frozen over.

The Columbia Records “Highway Hi-Fi”  was the must-have accessory for the any self-respecting car owner. Even the celebrities got in on the latest trend.

On January 28, 1887, the construction of the Eiffel Tower first began. 2 years, 2 months and 5 days later, the iconic tower was finished. This was considered to be done in record time, as it was a veritable technical feat.

In 1949 during the annual Vending Machine Convention in Chicago, Betty Dutter, (famous model at the time) demonstrated how to use a Sun Bathing Machine.

Safety standards in the 1960’s we frankly not that high. The photo above goes to show just how relaxed the rules and regulations were when it came to standardized safety precautions.

In 1922, at the University of Toronto, scientists went to a hospital ward with children who were comatose and dying from diabetic keto-acidosis. The scientists went from bed to bed and injected the children with the new purified extract – insulin.

Before the turn of the 20th century, it was a yearly tradition for freshman and sophomore Princeton University students to have a snowball fight.  This famous photo shows three students with bruised and battered faces after the 1893 fight.

As most have witnessed, garbage people rarely must exit the truck to pick up and deport the trash from our front yards. However, this was not always the case. Before garbage trucks became mechanisms of ultimate deployment, they were simply massive storage trucks.

Bea Arthur from the NBC hit Golden Girls is photographed here as a United States marine. She served in 1943. A few decades later she would go on to star as Dorothy Zbornik opposite Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.

A roadside stand is pictured somewhere in 1930s Alabama. In the photograph you’ll notice two young boys standing proudly with their pumpkins.

A group of young boys and men closely observe a player’s move during a game of marbles. The year was 1905.

A baby Elon Musk flashes a large smile to the photographer in a Mickey Mouse shirt holding what looks like a tasty treat.

In what looks like some sort of advertising campaign, a couple is seen looking over a collection of color televisions with the help of a salesman.

Samuel Reshevsky was a young chess prodigy before he even reached double digits.

While there is some debate surrounding the origins of the infamous character “the joker” from Batman, there is agreement that actor Conrad Veidt’s likeness was used to create it.

Pablo Escobar is seen outside the White House of then president, Ronald Reagan. Pablo Escobar is standing with what we assume is his son, beyond the gates of the man who launched the “War on Drugs.”

An 1918 automobile was photographed parked with various food and drink sat upon it. Women surround the vehicle, either to purchase from or as the vendors.

Helen Keller, who became famous for her tenacity in learning to read, write, and communicate after being born blind and deaf, meets Charlie Chaplin in 1919.

The Ladies Scottish Climbing Club was created by Jane Inglis Clark, her daughter Mabel Clark, and Lucy Smith by a boulder in Perthshire, 1908.

Future icon Notorious B.I.G. sits in a house in his smartly dressed suit in 1978. At the time, the destined rapper was still going by the name he was given at birth,Christopher George Latore Wallace.

Distractions, public transportation, and waiting. This old school photo represents modern culture still to this day. The differences are few and far between.

Here is something most of us are all too familiar with at this point! While the misnomer “Spanish Flu” was kicked into full gear, it was common to cover your face with a mask to avoid the spread.

Old photographs have the ability to remind us how far we have come, but also where we want to go. In certain cases they can even manipulate how we see the future or how the past meets the present.