The camera as we know it today was invented by the French inventor Nicephore Niepce in 1816. Niepce technically took the first photo on a homemade camera, with silver chloride covered paper. Countless photographs were taken since that historical first one and the quality in which we are able to capture reality is only getting better, sharper, and more accurate.
Undoubtedly, the existence of photography has altered society in many ways. Although old photographs can be a bit grainy or blurry and they are usually black and white, they allow us to peek at a moment in time long before we were even born. And that can be fascinating. We hope you enjoy this collection of photographs, showcasing moments of a past world.
1. Teenagers at the record store, 1957
2. Boxing at Yankee Stadium, New York, 1923
3. New York Times newsroom, 1942
4. Rush Medical College lecture auditorium, Chicago, 1900
5. School dance, unknown location, 1956
6. Inside the “Gunn House Saloon” in Sonora, California 1898
7. African-American sharecropper and mother teaching her children numbers and the alphabet at home, Louisiana, 1939
8. Young boy watching television for the first time,1948
9. Inside the FBI’s Colossal Fingerprint Factory, Washington DC, 1943
10. Listening to a record during music class, 1957
11. Twins waiting at a bus stop on Route 66, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1947
12. Ashtrays and coin-operated televisions in the Los Angeles Greyhound bus terminal, 1969
Related: 20 Nostalgic Images of Circulating Libraries
13. Lunchtime at an automat in NYC, 1957
14. Getting cooled air piped into the car while enjoying a meal at a drive-in restaurant, Houston, Texas, 1957
15. Nurses in bomb trenches between hospital wards, France, 1918
16. Albert Einstein lecturing on the Theory of Relativity, 1922
17. Two female bootleggers, 1921
18. Swimming Instructor and Bather, Midland Beach, Staten Island, 1898
Source of images: Izismile
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