30 Spectacular Photos of Days Long Past

1.

There is modern beauty in this photograph of Lota Cheek taken 99 years ago.

2.

Laughter has sounded the same throughout generations and languages. (Unidentified woman and child, Jemez Pueblo New Mexico, by Jesse Nusbaum)

3.

Just one of the guys. (WWII)

4.

And then there was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

5.

Is it possible the architects had this in mind when they designed Grand Central Station? (1934)

6.

On 27 January 1945 was the liberation of Auschwitz. To forget would be to say these faces, the faces of millions of others didn't matter. Never forget. Teach the children to remember.

7.

He aims to please. (1954)

8.

Betty White in her Los Angeles home with her dog, 1952.

9.

It took more than 15 years to take the Statue of Liberty from concept to reality. Construction is pictured here in 1884, less than two years before she was completed.

10.

Some of our favorite old photographs are merely everyday people in everyday life.

11.

Dressed to impress. (1908)

12.

Boys will be boys. (Undated)

13.

Formal portraits rarely featured smiles, but they can be found in photographs of daily life during this period. (1912, South Carolina.)

14.

It’s that easy. Mutual respect.

15.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -Anne Frank

16.

A girl, a dog, a mule. From the 1921 silent film "Through the Back Door" staring Mary Pickford.

17.

A boy makes a friend at the London Zoo, 1958.

18.

This picture circa 1900s shows knife grinders also called ventres jaunes (‘yellow stomachs’ referring to the yellow dust released by the grinding wheel). By laying face down, these yellow stomachs would save their backs from being hunched over all day. Workers were encourage to bring their dogs to not only keep them company but to act as heaters to keep them warm by having the dogs lie on their legs.

19.

This simple moment is brought to you by 1930.

20.

A woman on a mission with her baguette and six bottles of wine. (Paris 1945 - by Branson Decou)

21.

104 years ago this fountain in Detroit, Michigan was left running allowing it to build layer upon layer in to this 30 foot icy spectacle.

22.

When do we gain the inhibitions not present in our youth?

23.

This 1931 photograph captures the spirit of the season as Santa delivers presents to the children of an adoption home in London.

24.

There’s nothing quite like getting hand delivered mail. (1900)

25.

The right day to hang laundry in New York. (1900)

26.

Happy (and very lucky) to be alive - 1917.

27.

Animals bring a type of joy not found in other ways.

28.

Isn't it interesting that we meet some of the best friends we ever have within the first years of our lives.

29.

Fred Messer's life spanned three centuries. He was born in 1792, 16 years after the United States became a counrty and lived to see automobiles roll along roads, dying in 1907. (North Carolina.)

30.

How homework was done before google.