Looking at a historical picture is kind of like entering a time machine. Each image transports us to a moment that captures the essence of bygone eras. They provide us insights into the events, people, and cultures from the past.
And the Facebook page called ‘Cool Old Pic of the Day Club’ is known for sharing photographs spanning different eras. They include a wide range of subjects like classic advertisements, fascinating portraits, intriguing landscapes and more.
Ready to look at some impressive photos from the past? Maybe they’ll give you a fresh perspective into history and how it shaped our world. Continue scrolling to broaden your mental horizons.
#1 E. Lilian Todd, Self-Taught Inventor Considered To Be The First Woman In The World To Design And Build Her Own Aircraft, 1909
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Social media pages like ‘Cool Old Pic of the Day Club’ show us how powerful photos can be. A single image can go viral in no time, highlighting important social issues or making a brand popular overnight. This is because photos have the ability to convey stories in a fraction of a second.
With an estimated 12.4 trillion photos captured since the first picture was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, it’s easy to get lost in the vast sea of visual content. However, this was not always the case.
#2 Life Is What You Make It
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#3 Engineer Karen Leadlay Working On The Analog Computers In The Space Division Of General Dynamics, 1964
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According to research, over 90% of photos are now clicked with smartphones as opposed to professional cameras. In olden days, capturing images was a rather meticulous and challenging process.
Photographers had to use cameras that relied on rolls of film to capture photos. While using these traditional film cameras, they had to pay close attention to various factors like lighting, focus, and exposure settings in order to get a good picture.
#4 Children Cross A River Using Pulleys On Their Way To School In The Outskirts Of Modena, Italy, 1959, Technically Uphill Both Ways
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#5 Julia Child Makes Spaghetti With Mr. Rogers, 1974
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#6 The Rocket Express, A Monorail That Carried Kids Around The Toy Department 8th Floor At The John Wanamaker Department Store In Center City, Philadelphia, 1950s
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#7 Riding The Broughton Lumber Flume, Hood River Junction On The Columbia River At The Washington/Oregon Border
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#8 A 1932 American Bantam That Was Used For Ferry Service Over The Pudding River In Oregon
The operator removed the tires and placed rubber bands on the rims for traction. Three cables were strung, two for the wheels and the third attached through the top of the car for stability. It was said that one gallon of gas was enough for 1500 trips across the 120 foot span
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#9 Sent The Crumb-Snatcher To Gramma’s! A Postman With A Baby In His Mailbag When It Was Possible And Legal To Send Children Through The U.S. Postal Service, 1913
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Unlike modern cameras, which have automatic settings and are easier to use, photographers were required to manually adjust these settings for every shot. While digital cameras can adjust exposure in real-time, earlier photographers had to wait until the film was developed in order to see the results.
#10 1915 Eruption Of Mt Lassen As Seen From Red Bluff, California
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#11 5 Megabyte Hard Drive Being Shipped Out, Ibm, 1956
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#12 Ming The Panda Photographing Bert Hardy’s Son, Mike, At London Zoo, December 1938
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Also traditional film cameras had a limited number of exposures meaning they couldn’t store hundreds of photos like a smartphone. Photographers had to be selective about what they wanted to capture as these rolls typically contained anywhere from 12 to 36 frames.
#13 50,000 Book Kerfuffle, Lorain Public Library, Lorain, Ohio, 1971
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#14 Farm Boy At Pop Stand, General Store In Lamoille, Iowa, Arthur Rothstein, 1939
Reminded me of the old ad from there: “Nesbitt’s soda pop pop”, the sound of popping your cheek with your finger
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#15 What Will They Think Of Next? Bell Telephone’s Picturephone, 1964
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#16 Roland, A 4,000 Pound Elephant Seal, Getting A Snow Bath From His Handler At The Berlin Zoo, 1930s
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#17 Women Assembling The Beatles’ ”rubber Soul” Album At The Hayes Vinyl Factory, 1965
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#18 CBS Employee Barry Manilow In The File Room, 1965
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Once clicked, the picture couldn’t be printed at home or at any shop, the film had to go through a series of chemical processes in order to develop the latent image.
Capturing images in the 19th and 20th centuries required patience and a willingness to accept the unpredictability of film photography. Back then each frame was precious and valuable.
#19 Empire State Building Window Washer, 1936
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#20 Hollywood Boys Choir, 1973. From Top Left Kent Mccord, Martin Milner, Charles Nelson Reilly, Ed Asner, Glenn Ford, Red Foxx, Jack Carter, Ernest Borgnine, John Wayne And Howard Cosell
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#21 Summertime
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#22 How To Avoid Overbooking, Airline Reservations, 1945
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#23 Never Heard Of Personal Space Buddyyy?
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#24 Martin Joe Laurello, The Only Man With A Revolving Head Appeared In Sam Wagner’s Freak Show On Coney Island, 1938
Reputedly, He Could Rotate His Head 180 Degrees. The Human Owl He Was Called
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So such images not only give us a peek into history, they also show the dedication and hard work of those involved in capturing them. They document significant moments in time and enrich our understanding of the world around us.
Continue scrolling to look at some rich pictures from the past. Feel free to immerse yourself in the visual narratives of yesteryears with more historic pictures and rare moments from the past. Let us know which one you find the most fascinating.
#25 USS Los Angeles Airship Lands On The USS Saratoga, January 1928
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#26 Santa Claus Rides A Motorbike With A Sidecar Down Oxford Street In London, 1949
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#27 What Do We Want? When Do We Want It?? 1932
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#28 A Family In Their Trailer Home At Glenn L. Martin Trailer Village, A Farm Security Administration Housing Project In Middle River, Maryland,1943
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#29 Building Empire State Building, 1930, The Entire Building Went Up In Just Over A Year, Under Budget (At $40 Million) And Well Ahead Of Schedule
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#30 Ellie Mae & Ms. Hathaway Getting Ready For A Dip In The Cement Pond, 1962
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#31 Stonehenge Repair Around 1919
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#32 Properly Equipped Bike, Check. All The Neighborhood Girls To Show Off To, Check. Close Adult Supervision, Check. Knowing Life Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This, Priceless
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#33 Motorcycle Racer Roland Free Lies Horizontally On His Bike As He Breaks The World Speed Record On Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats On September 13, 1948
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#34 Yeah, This Oughta Help. Santa And Two Clowns Visiting Children In Hospital During The 1950’s
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#35 4.5 Megabytes Of Data In 62,500 Punched Cards, 1955
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#36 Famous Italian-American Chef Ettore Boiardi (1897-1985)
Better-known by the anglicized version of his name, Hector Boyardee, who was famous for his namesake brand of food products, “Chef Boyardee. That’s a one a spicy meatball
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#37 Shemp Howard 25, And Moe Howard 22, Performing On Stage As Howard And Howard In Vaudeville, 1919
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#38 Howard Hughes Test Flying A Radio Controlled Scale Model Of The Spruce Goose In California, C.1947
Or: testing pic of the Convair Tradewind XPB5y-1 radio control model at Lindbergh field, San diego. Take your pick, whatever floats your boat!
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#39 Lumberjacks Shaving With An Ax, 30s
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#40 Twenty Mule Team Drawn Farm Combine, Walla Walla County, Washington, 1941 Americana
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#41 A Seal Puts On A Show By Balancing A Doll Before Young Viewers At A Performance Of The Krone Circus In Aachen, Germany, 1961
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#42 Millworker’s Children Eating Watermelon On Porch Of Rented House. Six Miles North Of Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina, 1939. Dorthea Lange
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#43 Civil War Veteran Jacob Miller (Company K 9th Indiana Vol. Inf) Was Shot In The Forehead On Sept.19th, 1863 At Brock Field At Chickamauga And Left For Dead
He lived with an open bullet wound for many years, with the last pieces of lead dropping out 31 years after he was first shot
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#44 Wilbur Wright Flies Around The Statue Of Liberty, 1909
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#45 A Women Demonstrates A Futuristic Typewriter Chair Complete With Headphones And A Light, Paris, 1972
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#46 Riding
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#47 Hold My Root Beer
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#48 Downtown Los Angeles In 1901, Then 2001
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#49 Turkeys Pardoned From The Thanksgiving Table Were Told They Would Live Their Lives Out In Luxury, Three Oaks, Michigan, 1909
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#50 Kirk Douglas Using A Pole To Lift His Sons, Joel And Michael While Training For His Famous One-Armed Pushups, 1955
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#51 Don’t Remember Wearing The Cap But Do Remember Having To Sit In The Corner And Then Writing The Same Thing A Hundred Times On The Blackboard
Oh yeah, and then cleaning the erasers
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#52 Densely Packed Traffic Travelling Southbound On The Pasadena Freeway
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#53 Golf Ball Collector, 1920
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#54 Kangaroo Jumps Rebound Shoes, 1935. Back In The ’70s I Could Run Faster And Jump Higher With My Pf Flyers… At Least That’s What They Said
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#55 Orchestra Members Dressed In ‘Michelin Man’ Costumes Open The Inaugural Radio Show Of ‘The Michelin Hour’. April 17, 1928
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#56 Glad They Don’t Allow This Type Of Fun Anymore What With The Broken Necks All The Time
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#57 Finally! 1967
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#58 Garment Workers Leave The Factories For Noon Hour, Seventh Avenue And West 28th Street, New York, 1936
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#59 A Transit Worker Retrieves A 1965 Ford Mustang From The Subway Tracks After A Woman’s Accidental Entry At 40th Street Portal, Philadelphia, 1965
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#60 Sewing American Flags For The War At The Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1917. Happy Flag Day
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#61 Barbara Eden And Chuck Yeager During Yeager’s Cameo Appearance On I Dream Of Jeannie, 1965
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#62 Ironing Hair, 1964
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#63 Portable Sweat Box, 1942
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#64 Loading Southern Pacific’s Specially Designed Vert-A-Pac Railroad Cars With The Mighty Chevy Vega, Lordstown, Ohio, 1974
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#65 Big Daddy Don Garlits Got Right To Work On Putting The Engine Behind The Driver After He Got Out Of The Hospital, Amazing No One Thought Of Doing That ‘Til This, 1970
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#66 Radio-Delivered Newspaper Machine, Missouri, 1938
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#67 A Boy Stands Near A Pissoir, One Of The Many Outdoor Urinals Installed On The Streets Of Paris Starting In The Mid-19th Century
At their peak, Paris’ pissoirs numbered more than 1,000. Circa 1865
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#68 Balancing Act On Chimney Of 22 Story Building In NYC, 1920s
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#69 Memorial Day Weekend Traffic Jam, New York City, 1949
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#70 Workmen Laying Wooden Water Pipeline East Of Lewsiton, Idaho, 1891
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#71 The Stroll That Started It All, 1960
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#72 Before Hogs, Oxen Did Sturgis, 1880s
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#73 Before Elon Musk, 1948
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#74 Kenneth Hunter Doing Some Mid-Air Mechanical Checkups During The Hunter Brothers’ Record Breaking 23-Day-Long Flight Without Landing
Over the 23 days, food and fuel were delivered to them periodically by another airplane, 1930
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#75 This Is How It’s Done Son
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#76 With A Landmark Around Every Corner And A Picture Perfect View Atop Every Hill, San Francisco Might Be The World’s Most Picturesque City
Taylor & Pine street, San Francisco, 1952
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#77 Admiral Richard Byrd’s Antarctic Snow Cruiser Passes Through Traffic And Onlookers On Its Trek From Chicago To Boston
Before halting for the night in Framingham, Massachusetts, on November 12, 1939. Traffic was snarled for 20 miles in a jam that involved 70,000 automobiles
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#78 No Elevator? No Problem
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#79 Crossing The Yuba River On Donner Summit June 4, 1911
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#80 11th Avenue, New York, C1910, Lots Going On Here
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