Historical images - Images that made history

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Men and plow digging out Minnesota's railways in the aftermath the winter storm of 1880-1881.
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These photos will absolutely turn up on Facebook as proof of the mud flood and the baby trains

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Emperor Charles I of Austria

 

[Executive Petrel]

Elon Musk at President Trumps inauguration, january 2025:

 

[Carlos Thin]

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This thread, God willing, is reserved for actual photographs and notes of history. Memes and good humor are appreciated, but if you could keep your posts to detailing actual events in history, that would be great. If you wish to make a post on the many disasters that have befallen the Yellow River; the assassinations of American Presidents, or Gandhi; the contents of Osama Bin Laden's bunker; or the plight of Siberia--by all means do.

 

[Myra]

Victorian Era Londoners


Child Shoeblack, 1877. Independent shoeblacks were required to obtain a five-shilling yearly licence.


A young mother, exhausted from spending hours making matchboxes, a pile of which sit on the table. At her feet a young child sleeps, covered by a blanket. For homeworkers in the sweated industries there was no division between work and home life and exhaustion was common as they worked an average of 16 hours per day.


Sitting on the doorstep of her typical East End home, Mrs Robinson stuffed mattresses with straw for a living. For each completed mattress she could expect to receive one shilling. circa 1900.


A mother and her children making matchboxes. The children were sent to fetch the chip and paper from the match factory and to return the finished boxes. This was one of the lowest paid sweated industries with families earning just two pence for 144 boxes made, and normally buying their own paste and string for tying the bundles.


Italian street musicians C. 1876. This photograph shows an Italian boy entertaining passers-by by playing the harp. Italians migrated to London as they found 'a beggar in England is richer than a labourer in Italy'.


Covent Garden Flower Women, 1877. Covent Garden was well known as a location for flower sellers.


A vast crowd waiting outside James Preston Butchers on Hoxton Street, Shoreditch, c. 1910


A stonepipe-making workshop. The rapidly growing infrastructure in the capital created huge demand for products such as pipes.

 

[Soso]

Enver Pasha and his daughter

 

[Jaded Optimist]

Ripple Rock was a reef less than 3 meters below the surface of Seymour Narrows.

Thank you for posting this! Such a cool spot to see in person.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Yuri Gagarin with his daughter.

And some more photos of the first man in space for April 12th.

 

[Soso]

Korea underneath the boot of Japan known as Chosen at the time.

Taken in modern day North Korea which I presume to be North Pyongan Province (?)


Seoul otherwise known as Keijo



Heijo (Pyongyang) once known as the Jerusalem of the East before the Kim Regime.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Space shuttle and the carrier aircraft.


Does anyone have any images that's a broadside view of the Space Shuttle in orbit? Like I remember back in Highschool, one of the classrooms had a large poster of The Space Shuttle in space above the earth but at a somewhat distant broadside view of it. I looked everywhere on the internet but can't find the exact image. Does anyone here have it?

 

[Internorth Inc]

To continue the Shuttleposting: Space Shuttle Challenger in orbit.

 

[millais]

In late 1930s, German photographer Ilse Steinhoff made several expeditions to the former German colony of Southwest Africa (modern Namibia), which was then a League of Nations mandate territory administered by South Africa. Part of the then popular movement to rekindle nostalgia for the German colonies that were lost to the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles.

Interesting that she is as tall as the native Ovambo or Herero or whatever he is, even though she would have been a child during the blockade and starvation years of wartime and postwar Germany.

 

[Soso]

During the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea allowed allied nations to visit, encouraging tourism. Before the mid 70s, North Korea was richer than the South.

To appeal to many, they promoted brochures of life in the DPRK.



A once functioning theme park, in the present it has rusted over and the rides barely work.

However since the Soviet Union's collapse and China focusing on reformations during the late 1980s and 1990s, everything fell apart and North Korea has not recovered since then.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Supposedly the first post ever made on 4chan:

 

[Ventrue]

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: November 22, 1963

Frame 312 the last image of John Kennedy alive. At this point in time he was shot in the neck and conscious, the fatal shot was already fired. By frame 313 he was fatally shot in the head. Kennedy's movement was restricted because he wore a back brace to deal with severe back pain. It has been believed had he not have worn his back brace which he has done in the past, he might have survived by diving down towards the floorboard of the car.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

HMT Olympic (yes, sister ship of Titanic) during WW1, serving as a troopship. Olympic survived the war, even managing to sink a U-boat that attempted to torpedo her.
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The White Star Line and Cunard had really good war records, an had sank a lot of tonnage considering they where not warships, most if not all the senior Captains (it's a time served rank not anything official outside of professional circles) where also Royal Navy Reserve officers an this allowed them to have an additional mark on there flags, and with the bigger faster ships like the Titanic, Britanic an Oceanic where also Royal Mail Carrier ships that's why they all had the RMS honorific prefix before the ships name.

One story from WW1 that is unconfirmed is a WSL ship was in a German colonial port dropping off passengers the day war broke out the local harbour master an German officials tried to stop the ship from leaving port and the captain ordered some Stokers (the guys shovelling coal) on deck with there shovels and the senior officers armed with revolvers an flair guns an finished unloading there passengers and then set sail, apparently the Germans tried boarding the ship with 5 people an they decided letting the ship sail after unloading mostly German passengers was better than risking a fight with the crew of the ship.

Churchill sitting outside with Rufus:

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He was painting or sketching in that photo, Churchill was a avid artist and Brick layer (yes seriously), during his youth he was a War reporter during the Bore War an always included sketches an paintings that where highly regarded.

Many pieces of history were damaged, defaced, or destroyed, lost forever underneath the disastrous policy of destroying "The Four Olds." Temples, churches, and others were all looted, their scriptures and art destroyed. Riots and mass hysteria spread throughout China

A lot of artifacts where burred or hidden and trying to find them has been a regular thing in Chinese cultural circles since the 80's, every time I hear something about it I always think of the Book Leggers from "A Canticle for Lebowitz" while a lot of important items where lost lots of smaller items survived burried underground, hidden in strange places etc because the current government is trying to preserve history more an more is getting found including things lost in antiquity the problem is though with the PRC you have to take everything with massive grains of salt so some finds might be salted or intentionally misattributed.

I know I usually shitpost in here but this is awesome. The Smithsonian is basically encouraging people to recreate art and artifacts. That is a stellar idea because having a piece of history you can pick up and hold lying around, even if it’s a replica, has great potential for preserving the best parts of the past, and helping people learn and become curious about history from a spectator’s viewpoint. Going to someone’s house and they have a miniature scale model of the Rosetta Stone is a great conversation starter. Plus you get to feel classy and cultured lol

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The British Museum has been doing this for a while as well they are currently focusing on ancient historial artifacts an that kinda bums me out as there are more recent items I have a personal interest in that wont be scanned for a long time if ever (well during my life time).

Ripple Rock was a reef less than 3 meters below the surface of Seymour Narrows.

It was a major navigation hazard and caused about 120 shipwrecks between 1875 and 1958 killing at least 110 people.

There had long been plans to try and remove it somehow. Between November 1955, and April 1958, a three-shift operation involving an average of 75 men worked to build a 174 metre vertical shaft from Maud Island, a 762 metre horizontal shaft to the base of Ripple Rock, and two main 91 meter vertical shafts into the twin peaks, from which "coyote" shafts were drilled for the explosives.

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The contract was awarded to two firms for $2,639,000. At the time of the contract it was estimated the tunnels and shafts would not be completed until either 1957 or 1958 1,270 metric tons of Nitramex 2H explosives were placed in these shafts, estimated at ten times the amount needed for a similar explosion above water.

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The explosion took place at 9:31:02 am on April 5, 1958. 635,000 metric tons of rock and water was displaced by the explosion, resulting in debris at least 300 metres in the air, falling on land on either side of the narrows.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-KYD3S2adU
The blast increased the clearing at low tide to about 14 metres (45 feet). The Royal Canadian Mounted Police cleared the area of within 3 miles of the explosion, and the engineers and TV crew that witnessed the explosion were housed in a bunker. It remains to this day one of the top five planned explosions in human history.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=W23oP1-JDOw

Look up WW1 Land mines, not just the tin can's the big ones - during WW1 all sides dug mines under enemy positions with full blown caverns they packed full of explosives an blew up as part of various offensives, the largest is still there undetonated an still full of explosives but because it's so large an sensitive the French Government can't disarm it and there is a segment of a decently sized town built over it - these mines where some of the largest non nuclear explosions in human history.

There are books written by the miners who where called in to dig these things and if you think Trench Warfare was bad, or the Tunnel fighting Vietnam was bad it has nothing on this, in a war as brutal as WW1 was this was some of the most barbaric parts of the war and it does not get enough recognition, the Alpine wars get more attention an that was bad enough imagine intentionally burring people under seveal million tons of snow because you made a avalanche, then imagine artificially making a lake of mud an flooding tunnels with it but your tunnels are close enough you can hear the people drowing an it's in the dark no light an all you can do is hear the cries of men just like you crying for help as they drown in mud.

A young mother, exhausted from spending hours making matchboxes, a pile of which sit on the table. At her feet a young child sleeps, covered by a blanket. For homeworkers in the sweated industries there was no division between work and home life and exhaustion was common as they worked an average of 16 hours per day.

A lot of small or fiddly jobs where like this, lots of jobs where things like File cutting hook barbing, brush trimming and fusee chain making where all fine detail work that didn't pay much an where women’s an children’s work and was often the only work they could get while the husband worked as well, just to give you an idea I am a professional Blacksmith and I have an do make my own files an rasps for more specialist work and it's dull repetitive work that is tiring even if your used to swinging a hammer all day.

Here is a video from Ken Hawley (the guy who single handedly collected a lot of forgotten items of English industry) about making Files -

Now imagine doing that for 12 hours while managing a household an children,

Italian street musicians C. 1876. This photograph shows an Italian boy entertaining passers-by by playing the harp. Italians migrated to London as they found 'a beggar in England is richer than a labourer in Italy'.

Fun fact for you, one of the first commercial services for the telephone network was a dial a music service, it was common in the larger cities that had a wealthy base and a developed network to sustain it but you could call the local opera house an listen to music during some times of the day, it was later replaced with the hot performances recorded to wax cylinders. You could also get headline services where short blurbs of the news where played, or music hall entertainers etc.

The first commercial non message service however was Time Synchronisation and they had a early version of packet switching to be able to transmit time code at the same time as other messages and it was all managed with mechanical devices, it's a really fascinating but short lived period of history.

A stonepipe-making workshop. The rapidly growing infrastructure in the capital created huge demand for products such as pipes.

Where I grew up was right next to a early railway line and the associated Navvy Camp, you could dig in a random spot and find clay pipes they where considered disposable to an extent, in a lot of places a young girl or woman would work selling pre-packed pipes from a tray and they would try an collect the unbroken pipes to clean, repack an sell some even gave you money back for unbroken pipes.

When rolled cigarettes (not cigars) became a thing they moved onto that but considered the Pipe smokers better customers as they where less likely to complain, an often also trade "spills" before the invention of the lighter an the match a spill was a curly bit of wood you'd light from a fire or a candle etc to light your pipe a lot of serious carpenters made a specific plane called a "Spill plane" to make them from offcuts to sell or trade and after matches an lighters became common (they where invented within a month of each other) there was a 20 or so year period of older people paying the smoke girls for a spill rather than using a Lucifer because they didn't like the taste it imparted to the tobacco. This is still carried on by Cigar guys an pipe smokers who use ceader splits to light there pipe or cigar.

The matches we use today an gas or fluid lighters are realitively tasteless but before the 80's the composition of matches was heavily Sulphur based and left a lingering taste and smell and the really early ones where a small vial of acid that reacted with the lignin in wood, and the fluid based lighters (think Zippo) had a much more persistent odour an wasn't more common for a long time as a result. Ferromicium was the turning point for lighters as the sparks are hotter allowing for a greater range of fuel sources for ignition.

In late 1930s, German photographer Ilse Steinhoff made several expeditions to the former German colony of Southwest Africa (modern Namibia), which was then a League of Nations mandate territory administered by South Africa. Part of the then popular movement to rekindle nostalgia for the German colonies that were lost to the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles.
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Interesting that she is as tall as the native Ovambo or Herero or whatever he is, even though she would have been a child during the blockade and starvation years of wartime and postwar Germany.

There is a video of Ray Meers (if you don't know him you should) in the 90's talking to some African Tribesmen who still make an use Bow's to provide protection an put meat on the table, an he showed them a traditional English Long Bow an you could tell where the old colonial admin borders was because people from the north said "It shoots like a Mauser" and the southerners said "It shoots like a Enfield".

Either side of the divide has access to modern firearms but doesn’t use them outside of conflict because the ammunition is expensive but there Bows are constructed differently to European Bows that are more of a composite of materials and feels stiffer an less responsive to them, an African tribal Warbow topped out on average at 80 - 90lbs but a European Warbow was 120 - 150lbs and had a longer draw length (the optimal point a arrow is drawn back to achieve the best curve from the bow ballistically). According to the tribesmen he spoke to it wasn't the weight of the bow that was a issue but the weight of the Arrows, African Arrows tended to be lighter for the same length but flew faster and ours where heaver but flew at a similar speed because of the draw on our bows they found it hard to hit a target with the same accuracy. Apparently this is something Traditional Asian Archers mention as well they feel our bows are sluggish an unresponsive an our arrows are heavy they essentially perform the same in most respects, it's just down to how you are trained an use them.

We kinda dropped Bow development in Europe once Iron an Gunpowder became more common because we advanced past the bow as a technlolgy after a 150 - 200 year period where Crossbows where a thing as a cross over technology, and it allowed us to jump foward as there was other developments associated with it other groups didn't have, even if they had primative firearms, it also lead to a lot of social change as a result an combine that with other developments you get the modern world.

 

[Soso]

Pre-Taliban Afghanistan (Mostly 1970s and 1980s).


Average day in 1960s Afghanistan before the Saur Revolution.



Students at university.

Military parade celebrating the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.



Afghani soldiers during the failed Soviet Intervention


The day Kabul sadly fell to the Taliban. Since the Saur Revolution, Afghanistan has been in a state of chaos.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

April 21, 1946. Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl share a symbolic handshake marking the merger of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany in the Soviet Occupation Zone, forming the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). I think everyone knows what happened from there.



"From today, there will be no more Social Democrats and no more Communists. From today, there will only be Socialists.’" - Walter Ulbricht.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

China at the UN