Photos play an important role in our understanding of history. They provide additional details about people, places, and events from different eras that written records sometimes simply cannot portray. Thanks to the surviving images, the past feels more tangible and relatable.
The Instagram account 'History in Black & White' is an excellent example of this. Trying its best to share historical pictures in their original form, the account allows us to take a look into everyday life and pivotal moments that otherwise wouldn't be available to us.
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#1
A young boy playing the banjo to his dog in 1920.
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#2
Private James Hendrix of the 101st Airborne, playing guitar at Fort Campbell Kentucky in 1962. Jimi Hendrix went on to become one of the most influential guitarists of all time.
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To learn more about how to interpret these photographs, we contacted Danielle Burton—historian, heritage worker, and the voice behind the blog Voyager of History.
"History is about anything that ever happened, but fundamentally, it's very often about people," said the author of Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer? in an interview with Bored Panda.
"Societies may have changed, but what makes people people—their emotions, motives, etc.—hasn't."
#3
Sergeant William Henry “Black Death” Johnson of the 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hellfighters) wearing his Croix de Guerre medal in circa 1918. In North France, Johnson single-handedly fought off a German raiding party receiving 21 wounds in order to save fellow soldier Private Needham Roberts.
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#4
A little girl holding her pet toad at a pet show at Venice Beach, California, USA in 1936.
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#5
Harriet Tubman photographed in 1911 at the age of 89.
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History is such a vast subject that no one can possibly know it all. But if you look just a little deeper, you'll find something interesting.
"I think the Tudors are very much overdone," Burton said. "There are so many more interesting things on either side of the Tudor dynasty. My personal favorite period is the Wars of the Roses, without which the Tudors wouldn't have existed. The Stuart period that followed the Tudors is also fascinating."
"All of these periods are full of fractious societal dynamics that impacted the whole of society and revealed people's divided loyalties," the historian added.
#6
A photograph of Edinburgh, Scotland from the sky taken by Alfred G. Buckham in the 1920s.
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#7
a cat escaping from the Animal Rescue League in Boston, Massachusetts in 1940
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#8
Statue of David by Michelangelo, encased in bricks to prevent damage from bombs, during World War 2. Photograph taken in the 1940s.
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#9
Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet for his wife Lucille in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt, in 1961.
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The good thing is that you can satisfy your curiosity even if you're unable or unwilling to dive into academic literature.
"I would suggest to someone looking to learn more about history, but not quite ready for a more in-depth study, that they try finding blogs or popular history books to see which topics interest them and might inspire them to delve deeper," Burton added.
"These can be well-referenced and serve as a good starting point for beginning your own research journey."
#10
Roland, a 4,000 pound elephant seal, getting a snow bath from his handler at Berlin Zoo, Germany in c. 1930.
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#11
Oda Nobuyoshi, Japanese Civil Rights activist and dentist during the Meiji Era. Photograph taken in 1880 when he was 20-years-old.
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#12
A helmeted bulldog guarding a family outside a block of flats during the Blitz on the 15th October 1940
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#13
The iconic American wartime photograph "The Thousand Yard Stare" showing an exhausted 19-year-old US Marine Private Theodore J. Miller in February 1944 after two days of constant fighting at the Battle of Eniwetok. Miller would be killed in a firefight during the invasion of Ebon Atoll a month later on the 24 March 1944.
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#14
Royal Navy stoker with 21 years service nicknamed “Popeye”, photographed on board the HMS Rodney in September 1940. A stoker was responsible for anything from the propulsion systems to hydraulics, electrical and firefighting systems. The HMS Rodney played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in mid-1941.
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#15
Mercury Trains photographed in 1936. Mercury was the name used by the New York Central Railroad for a family of daytime streamliner passenger trains operating between midwestern cities. The Mercury’s started operating in 1936 and lasted until 1959.
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#16
The train wreck at Montparnasse Station in Paris, France on or near the 22nd October 1895.
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#17
A large crowd in Times Square, New York City celebrating the surrender of Germany, May 7th, 1945.
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#18
A group of Japanese Samurai photographed in front of the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt during a visit to the country, 1864.
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#19
A federal agent inspects a 'lumber' truck after smelling alcohol during the prohibition period, Los Angeles, in 1926.
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#20
Photograph of the oldest house in Hamburg, Germany taken in 1898. It was built in 1524 and, despite protests from locals, was demolished on the 8 December 1910.
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#21
The head of a Joseph Stalin statue on the streets of Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
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#22
Cow shoes used by moonshiners during the Prohibition Era to hide their footprints, June 18th, 1924.
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#23
Sadie Pfeifer, a young girl working at the Lancaster Cotton Mills in Lancaster, South Carolina, in 30 November 1908. At the time of the photograph, Sadie had worked at the mill for half a year.
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#24
One of the largest and heaviest horses ever recorded, Brooklyn Supreme, photographed in c. 1940s. He stood 19.2 hands (198 cm (6 ft 6 in)) tall and weighed 3,200 lb (1,451 kg).
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#25
A young Prince Charles standing between his grandmother, The Queen Mother (left), and aunt, Princess Margaret (right), at his mother Queen Elizabeth's coronation on 2 June 1953
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#26
Robert Wadlow, the tallest man to ever live, with his family in c. 1930s. Wadlow stood at 8 ft 11.1 in (272 cm) tall.
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#27
Amiens Cathedral photographed during World War I showing the walls lined with sandbags in order to protect the building from artillery. Taken in Amiens, France in 1918.
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#28
A 16-year-old Bill Clinton, future 42nd President of the United States, shaking hands with 35th US President John F. Kennedy at a American Legion Boys Nation event on July 24th, 1963.
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#29
An open-air school in the Netherlands photographed in 1957.
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#30
The last photo ever of Nikola Tesla. Taken on the 1 January 1943, 6 days before his death at the age of 86.
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#31
Future King George V of the United Kingdom sitting next to his cousin, future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia while posing for a photograph at Marlborough House in London, England in c. 1893. George and Nicholas shared the same maternal grandparents.
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#32
Photograph of the Hindenburg Disaster on the 6 May 1937. This was when the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst.
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#33
In 1945 a B-25 bomber got lost in the fog and crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. 14 people died in the accident. This is the damage that the crash caused.
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#34
Salvador Dali on a ship arriving in New York, United States on the 7 December 1936.
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#35
A beggar running alongside the carriage of King George V of the United Kingdom somewhere in London, England, 1920.
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#36
British veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and his wife sitting for a photograph in the 1860s. This veteran served in the Peninsular War which took place from 1807 to 1814 and saw Bourbon Spain assisted by Great Britain against the First French Empire for control of the Iberian Peninsula.
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#37
What is now the fully developed Las Vegas strip, 1955.
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#38
A French and British soldier helping the other light their cigarette during WWI in 1915
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#39
The tallest (Cornelius Bruns), shortest (Unknown), and fattest (Cannon Colossus) men in Europe playing cards and drinking together in 1913.
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#40
A blimp destroyed by the shockwave of a nuclear blast, Nevada in 1957.
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