One of the most special things about photographs is that they freeze a moment in time—a split second that happened that we will never get back. They can transport us to the past and give us a glimpse into a time when we were decades younger or even before we were born.
Photography plays an important role in preserving our family history and legacy and keeping memories alive. Without photos, we might never really know what our parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents looked like when they were younger. Or what everyday life was like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago.
There’s an online community dedicated to sharing photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes from the past. It has more than 1.5 million members and an endless archive of beautiful and fascinating content that conjures up all sorts of warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feelings. We've picked our personal favorites. Keep scrolling and enjoy a trip back in time through a series of real-life images shared by members of The Way We Were. Don't miss the interesting chat Bored Panda had with Clémence Scouten, a personal historian and founder of Memoirs & More, about why family history matters. We also spoke to Julie Kessler, the owner of Picture This Organized, for advice on how to preserve and organize old family photographs.
#1 London Punks And An Interested Gran In Chelsea, 1982
Image credits: Pixxiprincess
#2 In 1973, Masahisa Fukase Photographed His Wife, Yōko Wanibe, Leaving For Work Each Day From Their Apartment Window In Tokyo
Image credits: Lepke2011
#3 Women Fighting For Healthcare And Abortion Rights In The 1960s
Image credits: Hooverpaul
Clémence Scouten is a personal historian. She’s an expert when it comes to preserving family histories and legacies. As the founder of Memoirs And More, she has a wealth of experience in viewing, selecting, and organizing old photos and using them to tell a captivating story of how people once were—and are. Scouten is a firm believer in the power of photos.
“Photos are a great way to enter family history, like a window into history,” she told Bored Panda when we reached out to her. “We can see before we read. So even a small child can see pictures in an album or book and start to associate that with their family. Once that child gets older, they can read about the family and learn the details a photo can't convey.”
Photos are visual examples of our lives, and they tell the stories of our heritage, says Julie Kessler. She's the owner of a company called Picture This Organized. And spends endless hours helping families "organize their life treasures so they can share their life stories."
#4 Halloween 1977: Me As C-3po, My Sister As R2-D2. We Won Our Elementary School Costume Contest!
Image credits: makinghomemadejam
#5 A Photograph Of A Little Boy Carrying A Newborn Lamb, In Scotland, 1932
Image credits: WorldHub995
#6 Summer 1972, Boston, Massachusetts: "Abortion Is A Woman's Right"
Image credits: Hooverpaul
Scouten says that while it's important to preserve family history, not everyone wants to. And that's okay. "There's a lot of trauma some people want to leave behind, and we never want to force people to talk about that or be confronted with it," she explained.
Old family photographs can be particularly triggering. Looking at old photos reminds us of who we (and others) once were. “Someone might realize how very young they had been when they experienced a transformative event,” notes Psychology Today. “They might suddenly understand how vulnerable and innocent they had been.”
These reminders could trigger positive or negative emotions. They could change someone’s understanding of how their past played a part in who they are today. They could increase or decrease feelings of anger, guilt, or resentment. Photos—and the feelings associated with viewing them—could even prompt us to forgive. Or sometimes, fall in love all over again.
#7 A Sweet Photo Of A Brother And Sister. Charlottesville, Va, C. 1916
Image credits: WorldHub995
#8 My Grandma And Grandpa, 1961
Image credits: colieoly
#9 Lotta Atsye, The Chief’s Daughter Of The Laguna Pueblo, 1904
Image credits: Hooverpaul
"There are many benefits to preserving our family history and knowing about other family members' successes and failures," Scouten told Bored Panda. "It helps us understand we are part of a structure (love it or hate it!) and that what we experience was probably experienced by someone relatively close to us. It is literally good for us."
Experts agree that looking at certain old photographs can be good for our mental health. According to Psychology Today, viewing images “associated with specific positive autobiographical memories increased positive mood and helped repair negative mood induced by a sad film clip.”
#10 My Grandmother With My Mother In The Early 1970s. My Grandma Had A Pretty Sweet Fro!
Image credits: Nadia_LaMariposa
#11 The Infamous "Kids Table"
Image credits: valuecolor
#12 My Grandmother And Her Sisters. Mexico Around 1940's
Image credits: Taniaarth
Scouten says we can get a lot of information from an old photo. "For people who enjoy research, photos give us many clues to when the photo was taken. Clothing fashions and background info (buildings, cars, etc.) can help place the photo in a timeframe and a place," revealed Scouten.
"The material the original photo was made out of tells us when it was printed (from metal plates in the 1800s to "calotypes" which are paper negatives to glass plates in the mid-1880s and so on)."
"Pay attention to details such as the photography studio, dates on the border, and information written on the back of the photo. These can help identify the person, timeline, and location," adds Kessler when we ask her what to look out for when viewing old photos.
Kessler warns that old photographs should always be handled with care. "These items are often fragile, and it's especially important to use gloves when reviewing them," she said.
#13 My Grandpa Trying To Read The Newspaper With A Kitten Sitting On His Shoulder. Early 1980s
Image credits: rhit06
#14 My Teenage Mom In The 70s With Her First Horse, One She Paid For By Working Underage At A Movie Theater
Image credits: Pugpickle
#15 A Mother And Daughter Hamming It Up For The Camera, Ca 1900
Image credits: UrbanAchievers6371
When it comes to organizing your old photos, Kessler suggests filing them by family. "Physical prints won't have the same detailed information as digital photos will. So you don't know the day, year, or time unless someone has that information elsewhere. So we find it's easier to organize by the family vs date taken," she explained.
"Then, within the family, you can identify people and organize them chronologically. Most often, the volume of photos from older collections is significantly lower than that of digital ones. So, photos of your great grandfather as a child will likely be minimal."
Kessler says you should then store the content in an archive-safe box and use index cards or archive-safe folders to identify who is in that container or grouping.
#16 My Grandfather In New Orleans, Late 50’s
Image credits: Amodernhousehusband
#17 My Uncle’s Wwii Sketchbook
Image credits: CapsuCraft
#18 A Sami Woman, Toddler, And Infant In Lapland, Finland, 1917
Image credits: WorldHub995
Scouten says while she loves photographs, there are many other things that reveal how we were once upon a time. "My favorite is correspondence and diaries," she told Bored Panda. "People tell their stories, and the reader can learn not just what was going on but how the writer FELT about it."
She explains that while photos, especially formal portraits, capture how a person wants to look, correspondence or diaries often offer a much more intimate window into the subject's personality.
"In those old photos, no one smiles! But letters/diaries usually tell what's really going on as well as the mundane details of everyday life: chores, school, travel, work, and family, which you can't get from a photo."
#19 Actors Who Were To Portray The Munchkins In The Wizard Of Oz Arriving At Mgm Studios In 1938
Image credits: Dhorlin
#20 My Grandmother’s Modeling Photos 1940s-50s
Image credits: Jlr1
#21 Between 1900 And 1930, A Destitute Seed Pedlar Took More Than 5000 Photographs Of Daily Life In An Isolated Valley To The South Of The Alps. They Were Rediscovered Long After His Death. I Can't Convey How Amazing These Images Are
Image credits: dannydutch1
Old photos can also help jog our memory. Sometimes, we don’t remember things exactly as they were. But, a photograph can correct the inaccurate details of how a person, animal, place, or object looked or even how an incident felt. If you've ever looked at a photograph and felt instantly transported back to that moment, you know exactly what we mean.
#22 My Grandmother's Sister Tamara 🤩
Image credits: only_to_fly
#23 My Grandparents Wedding In 1937, Star Junction, Pa, He Was From Germany She Was From Sicily
Image credits: pioneergirl1965
#24 My Grandmother As A Child, Late 30s-Early 40s, Toronto
Image credits: AntiqueCattle
Scouten says working on your family history is bound to bring back many memories of people and times past, adding that this is something that should be embraced. She suggests taking the opportunity to reach out to a relative you haven't spoken to in a while to reminisce about a shared experience in your family history.
The expert says many of her clients are surprised by how differently they and someone else remember the same event. And how a conversation can trigger even more memories.
#25 Callie Campbell, 11 Years Old, Picks 75 To 125 Pounds Of Cotton A Day, And Totes 50 Pounds Of It When Sack Gets Full. “No, I Don’t Like It Very Much.” Photographed In Potawotamie County, Oklahoma. On October 16, 1916
Image credits: Empty-Current-8500
#26 A Girl Walking Her Rabbit In A Summer Kimono. Shinagawa, Japan, 1973
Image credits: MunakataSennin
#27 My Grandma And Great Aunt As Little Girls (1940s Or Late 1930s)
Image credits: castfire
#28 My Mom As A Teenager With A Moose Calf In Alaska, 1952
Image credits: Area_49
#29 My Grandma With Me In My Swanky Panorama Pram, 1976
Image credits: higglety_piggletypop
#30 My Mother And Me At A Picnic. Seoul, South Korea. C. 1977
Image credits: fodianora
#31 Plain Clothes Detective Foils Razor Yielding Thug In Glasgow, Scotland, 1971
Image credits: ErskineLoyal
#32 Photo Taken In Front Of The Colosseum, 1897
Image credits: theanti_influencer75
#33 A Picture Of 3 Sisters Taken Almost 100 Years Ago
Image credits: jocke75
#34 My Dad And His Best Friend. We Think The Picture Was Taken In 1972
Image credits: Present-Arm-6023
#35 Fleet Street. London 1897
Image credits: jocke75
#36 I Found These Photos While Thrifting And Reunited Them With Family
Image credits: LittleGoldenBearx
#37 My Grandmother In 1942 And My Mother In 1982 Wearing The Same Wedding Dress On Their Special Day
Image credits: serand62
#38 My Grandparents, "Lou Buck" And "Hootie" 1953. She Was My Last Living Grandparent, And We Said Goodbye To Her Today
Image credits: innosins
#39 My Grandmother, Circa 1957. Picture Taken By My Grandfather
Image credits: Beatingmeat7716
#40 My Grandmother Photographed By Her Father (Circa Late 1940s)
Image credits: Acceptable_Rule_7590
#41 Child In Her Pedal Car, Ca. 1922
Image credits: Hooverpaul
#42 My Wife At The Berlin Zoo
Image credits: Kawfene1
#43 Having A Little Fun On The Beach In 1940
Image credits: UrbanAchievers6371
#44 A Diver Photographed After Ascending From The Oily Interior Of The Sunken Battleship Uss Arizona. Photograph Taken At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii In The Days Following The Attack On Pearl Harbor In December 1941
Image credits: jocke75
#45 One Of My Favorite Pictures Of My Father. I’m Guessing He Was In His Early 20s In This Picture
Image credits: hellomyko
#46 White Family Mistaken For Black In 1955 Florida
Image credits: CryptographerKey2847
#47 My Nana, On Her 30th Birthday. July 19, 1975
Image credits: pEter-skEeterR45
#48 Portrait Of A Family. Florida, Circa 1900
Image credits: jocke75
#49 Alien Costume My Dad Made For My Brother In 1979
Image credits: BigBlackSabbathFlag
#50 My Grandmother (1925-)
Image credits: TheCatsMe0wth
