History and photography have always been good buddies, and many images have been ingrained into our minds as posters for various important past events.
Sharing moments from different eras, it has accumulated 676K followers, so let’s see what has resonated with them and take a look at the account’s most popular uploads.
Also, don’t miss the chat we had with Laura Di Stefano, who has a Ph.D. in medieval history and runs the blogThe Historian Traveller— you’ll find it in between the photos.
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Her dad told her, “If you marry that man you will never set foot in this house again.” Mary soon learned that most people felt the same way. The first years of their marriage living in Birmingham were hell– no one would speak to them, they couldn’t find anywhere to live because no one would rent to a black man, and they had no money. But they didn’t give up. Gradually life became easier. Mary got teaching jobs, ending up as a deputy head teacher. Jake worked in a factory and then got a job at the Post Office. Slowly they made friends, but it was difficult. Mary used to tell people, “before I invite you to my home…. my husband is black.” Some would never talk to her again. Last year they celebrated their 70th anniversary and they are still very much in love, and never regretted what they did.
It wasn’t that long ago when Instagram became an educational tool. It’s still far from being the main one, but the platform is certainly on the radar.“History is often taught through books, archival sources, and archaeological evidence,” Dr. Laura Di Stefano toldBored Panda.“However, most of the time, while accurate, these sources frequently provide a unilateral view of facts, focusing mostly on specific events and ‘famous’ figures from certain periods.”
It wasn’t that long ago when Instagram became an educational tool. It’s still far from being the main one, but the platform is certainly on the radar.
“History is often taught through books, archival sources, and archaeological evidence,” Dr. Laura Di Stefano toldBored Panda.
“However, most of the time, while accurate, these sources frequently provide a unilateral view of facts, focusing mostly on specific events and ‘famous’ figures from certain periods.”
To give us an example, Dr. Di Stefano named Charlemagne (or Charles the Great), whom we have all been taught about in school.
“What we don’t know, at least not to a great extent, is the lives of common people who lived during his era. What did they do? Did they have love stories? Did they aspire to see the world as they knew it? Did they struggle for independence from their parents or despise their lives?” Dr. Di Stefano wondered.
“When she applied to run in the Boston Marathon in 1966 they rejected her saying: “Women are not physiologically able to run a marathon, and we can’t take the liability.” Then exactly 50 years ago today, on the day of the marathon, Bobbi Gibb hid in the bushes and waited for the race to begin. When about half of the runners had gone past she jumped in. She wore her brother’s Bermuda shorts, a pair of boy’s sneakers, a bathing suit, and a sweatshirt. As she took off into the swarm of runners, Gibb started to feel overheated, but she didn’t remove her hoodie. “I knew if they saw me, they were going to try to stop me,” she said. “I even thought I might be arrested.” It didn’t take long for male runners in Gibb’s vicinity to realize that she was not another man. Gibb expected them to shoulder her off the road, or call out to the police. Instead, the other runners told her that if anyone tried to interfere with her race, they would put a stop to it. Finally feeling secure and assured, Gibb took off her sweatshirt. As soon as it became clear that there was a woman running in the marathon, the crowd erupted—not with anger or righteousness, but with pure joy, she recalled. Men cheered. Women cried. By the time she reached Wellesley College, the news of her run had spread, and the female students were waiting for her, jumping and screaming. The governor of Massachusetts met her at the finish line and shook her hand. The first woman to ever run the marathon had finished in the top third.”
The case would be different if we had more resources available to us from that time.
“If it was possible to have a picture of that frame of the Middle Ages, we would probably be able to catch some of these untold stories, which, in the end, are history too,” Dr. Di Stefano said.
Famed photographer Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado and his wife Lélia started a project to plant two million trees and now, 20 years later, the seeds have grown into a lush forest in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.
Mississippi’s first interracial marriage, August 1970.
In 1988, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole called the recording studio at 3am and said he had to record a song right away. 15 minutes later, Israel arrived at the studio. The studio owner, Milan Bertosa said, “And in walks the largest human being I had seen in my life.” A security guard gave the 500 pounds man a large steel chair to sit on. Milan said, “Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ He played and sang, one take, and it was over.”
On February 8th, 1943, Nazis hung 17-year-old Lepa Radić for being a Yugoslavian Partisan during World War II. When they asked her the names of her companions, she replied: “You will know them when they come to avenge me.”
In 1912, Jim Thorpe, an American Indian, had his running shoes stolen on the morning of his Olympic track and field events. He found this mismatched pair of shoes in the garbage and ran in them to win two Olympic gold medals that day.
The couple on the Woodstock album cover is still together 50 years later.
A member of the 369th Infantry Regiment (aka “Harlem Hellfighters”) holds a puppy that he saved during World War I (1918)
Members of the Blackfoot Tribe in Glacier National Park, 1913.
Anne Frank (1929-1945)
Robin Williams joins the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders in 1979.
When Jim Carrey met Stephen Hawking.
Terry Fox, after losing one of his legs to cancer; embarked on an east to west coast marathon in Canada to raise money for cancer research. He made it 143 days into his run before he lost his battle with cancer at the age of 22 - 1980
A portrait of the Twin Towers in NYC made with the faces of the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the towers.
A young boy playing the banjo with his best friend, circa early 1900s.
Barack Obama with his mother on Halloween (1964)
Babe Ruth posing with African American fans (1925) Babe Ruth, according to baseball historian Bill Jenkinson, was not racist. He chose to play games against “so-called Negro League teams” in 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1929, at a time when others refused to do so. Besides playing, Jenkinson said, Ruth would sit with black players in the dugouts, talk and socialize with them before and after games and mingle in the segregated stands. He scheduled games in locations where interracial competition was not only against local norms but also against the law. Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, said that she believes her father’s appreciation for black players hurt his chances of becoming a manager for an MLB team in the years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
On November 27, 1967, a soldier of the 30th regiment of the Baekma Division (백마부대) rescues Vietnamese children at the battle of Dien Can. This soldier’s name is An Sang-Byung (안상병).
A mom helping her kids beat a hard level in Super Mario Land, 1990s.
David Bowie chatting with Freddie Mercury backstage at Live Aid, 1985.
A powerful photo showing a priest holding a dying soldier while bullets are fired around them, Venezuela, 1962
In 1964 a group of high school kids skipped class to go see the Beatles. They didn’t get into the concert but while they were driving Ringo pulled up beside them and snapped their picture. When they told their friends no one believed them. Fast forward 50 years and Ringo publishes a book of his photographs. They were in it. They retook the shot as a look today.
German Soldiers React To Footage Of Concentration Camps, 1945.
100 year old picture show how amazing the traditional Rwandan hairstyle was.
A young man demonstrating against low pay for teachers, ca. 1930. “I left school to earn $21 a week. My teacher’s pay is $17.78 a week.” Photo: Paul Thompson.
1967: Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing a woman was running, organizer Jock Semple went after her to stop her. However, Switzers boyfriend and other runners provided a protective shield to protect her for the entire marathon.
Robin Williams, 1974
Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. in college, fall of 1937
Princess Diana on a yacht in Portofino, Italy, in August 1997. She died on the 31st of the same month
Yesterday September 10th, 18 years ago 246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning. 343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. 60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol. 8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for the morning shift. None of them saw past 10:00am Sept 11, 2001. In one single moment life may never be the same. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today and tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted.
The creator of the popular cartoon Shrek, William Steig, drew his character from the professional wrestler Maurice Tillet. The real prototype knew 14 languages, played chess brilliantly, and despite his frightening face and great strength at first glance, he was a very modest and friendly man. He was born in 1903 in Russia, in the Urals, into a French family, which in 1917 returned to France in connection with the revolution.
Queen meets the Queen, 1974
Rysstad, Norway, 1888 - 2013
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Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larissa Oleynik take a polaroid selfie on the set of 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999.
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Marilyn Monroe without makeup, 1960.
The RMS Queen Elizabeth pulling into New York with service men returning home after the end of World War 2, 1945.
Chichén Itzá when it was discovered in 1892 vs. Present day. Chichén Itzá is a complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A massive step pyramid, known as El Castillo or Temple of Kukulcan, dominates the ancient city, which thrived from around 600 A.D. to the 1200s. Graphic stone carvings survive at structures like the ball court, Temple of the Warriors and the Wall of the Skulls. Nightly sound-and-light shows illuminate the buildings' sophisticated geometry.
Knife grinders in France 1902,they worked lying down to save their backs and had dogs sit on their legs for warmth
Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne, Las Vegas 1999
A young Barack Obama with his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, 1960s.
Hiroshima 1945 vs. 2020
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 25-year-old Andrea Haberman was sitting in an office on the 92nd floor of the North Tower. At 9:00 a.m., she took out her phone and called her fiance as part of a little game they had to see who could call the other first in the morning when one was out of town. Andrea won, but 40 minutes later, a plane slammed into the tower, leaving no chance for escape. Months later, workers at Ground Zero found her phone.
Licence of prostitution issued to Tea Cup sally, circa 1898, Arizona.
In the olden days, Santa Claus would gather up naughty children, toss them in his basket and whisk them away to the North Pole to serve as his slaves. That’s where the legend of Santas elves came from.
74 years ago, many young men lied about their age for a purpose…
This photograph, taken around 1885 to 1886, showcases Ella Harper. Harper suffered from a highly uncommon medical condition called congenital genu recurvatum, which caused her knees to bend in the opposite direction. As a result, she found it more comfortable to move on all fours. In 1886, Harper joined a circus as a performer. She earned a reported $200 per week, which is equivalent to over $6,500 in today’s currency. A bio card distributed to circus spectators included the following information about her: “I am called the camel girl because my knees turn backward. I can walk best on my hands and feet as you see me in the picture. I have traveled considerably in the show business for the past four years and now, this is 1886 and I intend to quit the show business and go to school and fit myself for another occupation.
A young woman who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, August 1945.
Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Harvey Keitel, and Quentin Tarantino on the set of ‘Pulp Fiction, 1993.
People fighting to get on a plane in Nha Trang, April 1, 1975, during the US withdrawal from South Vietnam.
Alberto Cristini, 1997
A group of Havana schoolboys in 1937. The boy with the lollipop is Fidel Castro.
Tattoo Jack at work in his shop Nyhavn 17, Cophenhagen, Denmark 1942.
Joseph Frank Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966), known professionally as Buster Keaton, was an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer.
Night fishing, Hawaii - 1948 - Photographer unknown
The Grotesque aka gargoyle of Notre Dame overlooking Paris, 1910
Vietnamese babies who lost their parents during the Vietnam War were airlifted to the United States for adoption, 1975.
Rest in peace Jerry Stiller: here he is backstage, drinking some Blue Nun, 1974.
Four living legends.
Salvador Dali walking his anteater through Paris, 1969.
The streets of Mexico City , 1950
Eddie Van Halen & David Lee Roth outside McDonalds in 1978
Halloween 1925.
Downtown Los Angeles photographed in 1901, and again in 2001, exactly 100 years later.
[1995] Interview with Princess Diana about how she will never be Queen.
A young girl enjoying a smoke, 1914.
For the first time in many years, the smog in L.A. has cleared. Los Angeles is currently in their longest stretch of “good air” since 1995.
In 1964, Ringo Starr snapped a photo of some high school students who had skipped class to see the Beatles during their first trip to the United States. The group had no idea the photo even existed until Ringo published his book of photos and asked the group to come forward. Nearly 50 years later, the group reunited and recreated the photo.
Kobe, age 11, plays in a fundraiser while living in Italy. - Rest in Peace to The Black Mamba. Prayers to his family and friends as well as everyone else who was lost in a tragic helicopter accident today.
Donald Trump with his children Eric and Ivanka & Jeffrey Epstein at the Harley-Davidson Café in New York City back in October 1993.
This emotional video of the September 11th attacks including actual audio/video recordings reminds us of what we all experienced as a country.
Anne Frank and 7 other people hid in a 450 sq.ft. attic for 761 days, quietly trying to remain undiscovered in order to stay alive. You’ll probably be fine in your house…with your wine, your Grubhub and your Netflix. Feel grateful yet?
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