Life in PicturesFascinating, beautiful, and enlightening photographs from history, in their original black-and-white forms, colorized, or even in sepia.
History's Oldest Surviving Photos
Surprising Historical Snapshots
Life in the Real Wild West
Amazing Vintage Colorized Photos
Old School Cool
These Famous Photos Have Been Altered
Early Days at Major Companies
Old School Cool
Happening for the First Time
Iconic Landmarks Being Built
Wow, History Has Been So Weird
Life During the Great Depression
The 1893 Chicago World's Fair
Soldiers in Total Shell Shock
Historic Los Angeles
American Hobos Riding the Rails
Gold Rushes Around the World
Smiles This Way
Famous Military History Photos
Women at Work During the War
No Longer in Black & White
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Vintage Photos of Off-Duty Soldiers
Turn of the 20th Century Bars
Adorable Cats Through History
Inspiring Photos of Historical Record Setters
The Early Days of Aviation
Beautiful People Around the World
Vintage Aerial Pics of Cities
Child Labor in the Early 1900s
Coal Mining in the Early 1900s
Monuments Under Construction
From the US Civil Conflict
Inside California's Roughest Prisons
Ads That Predicted the Future
Fascinating Pics Missing from Your History Books
Photo:
Weird History
10 Utterly Fascinating Photos That Weren't In Our History Textbooks
Updated April 8, 2022 220.7k votes 81.9k voters 4.0m views
List Rules
Vote up the historical pictures that make you go "Whoa!"
From extinct animals to the excavation of Pompeii, history is immortalized in the photographs your textbooks couldn't print. National Geographic makes certain global documentation more accessible, but have you seen one of the oldest surviving aerial pictures ever taken? Did you know moonshiners used special shoes shaped like hooves?
Weird photos from history exist to remind us of our pasts and help predict our futures. And every now and then, these visual mementos resurface, depicting modern humanity in surprising ways.
