These Historical Photos

These Historical Photos A celebration of unique, old photos throughout history! (We claim no ownership of these photos)

This remarkable photograph shows a Yup'ik shaman performing a healing ritual for a sick boy in Nushagak, Alaska, during ...
09/10/2026

This remarkable photograph shows a Yup'ik shaman performing a healing ritual for a sick boy in Nushagak, Alaska, during the 1890s.

The shaman is wearing an elaborate ceremonial costume, including enormous wooden hands with shortened thumbs. In traditional Yup'ik spiritual practice, a shaman, known as an angalkuq, served as an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds. Healing could involve rituals intended to communicate with or drive away harmful spirits believed to be responsible for illness.

The photograph was taken by Frank G. Carpenter, an American photographer and collector whose work documented people and places across the United States. A copy of the image is preserved in the Library of Congress as part of the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection, while another copy is held in the Thwaites Collection at the University of Washington. Anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan identified the photograph as having been taken in Nushagak in the 1890s.

The oversized wooden hands and distinctive costume make this an especially rare visual record of a Yup'ik ceremonial practice that was already declining by the time the photograph was made.

This famous photograph shows French Resistance member Georges Blind facing a German firing squad at the Citadel of Belfo...
09/09/2026

This famous photograph shows French Resistance member Georges Blind facing a German firing squad at the Citadel of Belfort in France in October 1944.

Despite the appearance of an imminent ex*****on, the scene was actually a mock ex*****on intended to intimidate Blind into revealing information about the Resistance. He refused to cooperate, reportedly responding to the firing squad with a defiant smile. Blind was later deported to the Blechhammer concentration camp, where he died in November 1944.

The photograph, known as “Le Fusillé souriant” (“The Smiling Man Facing the Firing Squad”), became a powerful symbol of the French Resistance.

This photo shows fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg arriving at Halston’s New York townhouse on September 15, 1975, ...
09/09/2026

This photo shows fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg arriving at Halston’s New York townhouse on September 15, 1975, for a party celebrating Liza Minnelli and Jack Haley Jr.’s first wedding anniversary.

The gathering brought together some of New York’s most prominent names in fashion and entertainment, including Carol Channing, Lauren Bacall, and other guests from the city’s glamorous social scene.

This photo shows female students in Port Washington, New York, creating World War II propaganda posters on July 8, 1942....
09/08/2026

This photo shows female students in Port Washington, New York, creating World War II propaganda posters on July 8, 1942.

The students worked in an “art assembly line,” copying a master poster displayed in the background. The photograph, taken by AP photographer Marty Zimmerman, offers a glimpse at the many ways civilians contributed to the American war effort on the home front.

This photograph, titled “Defense of the Pioneers,” was taken by Soviet photographer Viktor Bulla in Leningrad in January...
09/08/2026

This photograph, titled “Defense of the Pioneers,” was taken by Soviet photographer Viktor Bulla in Leningrad in January 1937. It shows members of the Soviet Young Pioneers participating in a civil-defense drill, with the children wearing gas masks and practicing how to respond to a potential attack.

The Young Pioneers was a mass youth organization for children in the Soviet Union, closely associated with the Communist Party. By the 1930s, Soviet authorities increasingly emphasized military preparedness and civil defense, including training civilians to respond to air raids and the possible use of chemical weapons.

The striking image of hundreds of children in gas masks may look unsettling today, but it was originally intended to portray the children as disciplined, prepared, and capable of contributing to the defense of the Soviet state. Bulla, a prominent photojournalist whose career stretched from the Russian-Japanese War through the early Soviet period, photographed many major events before his death in 1938.

This photograph shows three runners competing in the first Olympic marathon, held on April 10, 1896, during the inaugura...
09/07/2026

This photograph shows three runners competing in the first Olympic marathon, held on April 10, 1896, during the inaugural modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The 25-mile (40-kilometer) race began near the town of Marathon and finished at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. Seventeen runners started, with Greek runner Spiridon Louis eventually winning in 2:58:50. The race was the first competitive marathon of its kind and established an event that would become a permanent part of the Olympic Games.

This photo shows Desi Arnaz after picking up Lucille Ball at LaGuardia Airport in New York on November 20, 1940, as she ...
09/07/2026

This photo shows Desi Arnaz after picking up Lucille Ball at LaGuardia Airport in New York on November 20, 1940, as she arrived from Los Angeles.

The two had recently starred together in Too Many Girls and had fallen in love while making the film. Ball was in New York for the film’s opening, and the couple’s romance was already attracting attention in the press. Just 10 days later, they eloped in Greenwich, Connecticut, beginning a 20-year marriage that would eventually lead to their legendary partnership on I Love Lucy.

This photograph from 1921 shows two women wearing rubber beauty masks marketed as a way to reduce wrinkles and improve t...
09/06/2026

This photograph from 1921 shows two women wearing rubber beauty masks marketed as a way to reduce wrinkles and improve the appearance of the skin.

These masks were part of the early-20th-century beauty industry, which promoted increasingly unusual devices and treatments as solutions for common cosmetic concerns. The tight-fitting rubber masks were intended to create pressure on the face, with manufacturers claiming this could help smooth wrinkles and blemishes.

Taken on June 6, 1944, Into the Jaws of Death captures American soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division wading ashore at O...
09/05/2026

Taken on June 6, 1944, Into the Jaws of Death captures American soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division wading ashore at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.

Coast Guard photographer Robert F. Sargent took the photograph at approximately 7:40 a.m. as troops from Company E, 16th Infantry, came ashore from a landing craft in waist-deep water under German fire. The image became one of the most recognizable photographs of D-Day and one of the defining images of World War II.

This 1981 promotional photo shows Eddie Murphy with fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Robin Duke.Murphy was just 20...
09/05/2026

This 1981 promotional photo shows Eddie Murphy with fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Robin Duke.

Murphy was just 20 years old and in his first full season on the show. He quickly became one of SNL’s breakout stars, while Duke was part of the new cast assembled for the 1981–82 season. The pair would both remain with the show for several seasons.

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