Too many people don’t know or care about our history. This isn’t a particularly new issue, as even in 1943, The New York Times reported that college students showed “a striking ignorance of even the most elementary aspects of United States history.” Such a predicament could be explained by the fact that history can be quite a dull and dry subject to talk about if it’s not presented in an engaging or appealing way.
To get you, our dear Pandas, more interested in history, which helps to shape our future, we curated a whole list of historical images from the Historical Pictures Facebook group in hopes that this way of learning about the past is more compelling than reading about it from textbooks. Scroll down to find the photos below, and be sure to upvote those pieces of history you found the most fascinating.
While you're at it, don't forget to check out a conversation with historian and writer Matthew Lewis and history travel blogger Jen Brown, aka Jaunting Jen, who kindly agreed to talk with us more about their love of history.
#1 A Man And His Dog In A Photo Booth, 1943. Historic Photographs
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#2 A Young Boy Playing The Banjo With His Best Friend In The Early 1900s
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#3 Ww1 Tribute To The Horse Which Played A Major Role In That War And Made Awful Sacrifices
Image credits: Historical Pictures
Historian and writer Matthew Lewis tells Bored Panda that history really took a grip on him when he started studying the Wars of the Roses at school.
"I was fascinated by the huge characters, the seismic events, the crown swapping hands back and forth, and I was struck by the depth and complexity of it. I think it was this that first made me really think about history as the story of real people, rather than just events and dates. So I blame my fascination with history on my A-level history teacher," Lewis jokes.
#4 Sioux Chiefs In 1905
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#5 A Wwi Allied Soldier Bandages The Paw Of A Red Cross Working Dog In Flanders, Belgium, 1917
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#6 A Baby Lamb Snuggles Up To A Sleeping Boy, 1940
Image credits: Historical Pictures
The Wars of the Roses that Lewis mentioned took place from 1455 to 1485 in England between two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster and the House of York, who essentially fought about who had the rightful claim to the English throne.
At the time, they were considered civil wars. Later, this conflict became known as the Wars of the Roses since the Lancastrians were associated with a red rose and the Yorkists were associated with a white rose.
The Wars of the Roses ended when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at Bosworth and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two families.
#7 In 1940, As A Member Of The Polish Resistance, Witold Pilecki Volunteered To Be Captured By The Germans During A Street Roundup In Warsaw So He Could Infiltrate Auschwitz
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#8 A 17-Year-Old Rowan Atkinson Studying Electrical Engineering At Newcastle University, 1972
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#9 Ladder 3 Was One Of The First Firefighter Units To Show Up At The World Trade Center On September 11, 2001
Image credits: Historical Pictures
History travel blogger Jen Brown, aka Jaunting Jen, discovered her love for history in school as well, though thanks to a different subject.
"Making replicas of pyramids first sparked my interest in history, I've been hooked ever since," she shares.
She believes that it's important for people today to understand our history because it tends to repeat itself. "It's hard to understand the present if we don't understand the past. Many of our current problems in the world are rooted in history."
#10 Tsarevich Alexei Romanov Playing With His Dog Joy In 1917. On July 17, 1918, Alexei And His Family Were All Murdered And Joy Was The Only Survivor
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#11 Alfred Hitchcock With His Grandchildren Enjoying The Snow (1960) Images
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#12 A Young Boy & His Rooster Friend, Columbia, South Carolina 1923
Image credits: Historical Pictures
Meanwhile, Lewis thinks it's crucial that we understand because it tells the story of how we got where we are today.
"History is the story of how we got to where we are today, and what greater tale can we tell ourselves? History teaches us to think critically about actions and the motives behind them," he explains.
"In an age of fake news, that skill ought to be prized more highly than it is. If we think about a post-pandemic world, with wage suppression, war in Europe, rocketing taxation, and uncertainty in government, we might be considering today, or the late 14th century, in the wake of the Black Death with the Hundred Years’ War ongoing. If we want an indication of what might happen next, history offers some answers."
#13 There Were About 180 Towers In Bologna In The 12th Century. The Tallest, 97 Meters High (320ft), Still Stands
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#14 A Young Girl — Barely More Than A Whisper Of Time — Dressed In Innocence, Stares Out From The Past. Beneath Her Image, A Simple Phrase: "Bonne Fête.” Two Words. Happy Birthday
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#15 Around 1910 Near Williston, North Dakota, A Young Girl Stands In A Meadow Pulling A Toy Dog In A Two-Wheeled Cart
Image credits: Historical Pictures
So, to expand our knowledge of history, we asked history enthusiasts to share the most fascinating historical fact they know.
For Brown, it was the construction of the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, an underground hypogeum in Malta, which was done with primitive tools five thousand years ago.
It's an outstanding underground burial complex carved out of soft globigerina limestone using only Stone Age tools like chert, flint, and obsidian, along with antlers.
The site was accidentally discovered in 1902 by a stone mason who was laying the foundations for a number of houses. In 1981, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a site that bears unique testimony to a civilization that has disappeared
#16 A Boy And His Dogs Sit For A Portrait Sometime Around 1920. Probably Pennsylvania
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#17 On Titanic Ship, The Musicians Of The Rms Titanic Actually Did Stay On The Ship, Played Music, Intending To Calm The Passengers, For As Long As They Possibly Could
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#18 Brothers Lysenko, All 10 Went To The Front Of The Second World War And All 10 Returned. (Soviet Union)
Image credits: Historical Pictures
The most fascinating historical fact that Lewis decided to share is that time immemorial has a start date.
"We use it to mean something out of memory, that has always been the way it is. Medieval law relied heavily on a principle of custom and tradition. When King Edward I set about codifying more English law, he created the Statute of Westminster in 1275. This set the date of time immemorial to 3 September 1189. That was the coronation date of Edward’s great-uncle Richard I, the Lionheart.
It meant that in law, if you could prove something had been a custom since 3 September 1189, it would be considered to have been a custom since time immemorial. In 1275, it was felt that 1189, 86 years earlier, was beyond the reach of the memory of anyone alive," he explains.
#19 Batman's Special Effects In The 1960s
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#20 In Chukotka, Russia, Back In 1974
In the frozen wilderness of Chukotka, Russia, back in 1974, a young polar bear cub named Masha was left alone after her mother was shot by a hunter. Too small and weak to survive on her own, her chances looked grim—until explorer Nikolai Machulyak found her in the snow. Moved by kindness, he began feeding the fragile cub throughout the harsh Arctic winter, bringing fish, meat, and condensed milk.
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#21 A Million Horses Went To War... Only 65,000 Came Back
Image credits: Historical Pictures
Lastly, we couldn't let the history enthusiasts go without asking about the misconceptions people have about our past that they wish more people got right.
"One of the most common misconceptions about history that I constantly find myself correcting is that communism is some wonderful thing," Brown says.
"In reality, it is a failed system that directly caused the deaths of tens of millions of people through starvation, disappearances, and murder. Many of my students don't know this. They only listen to TikTok, where so many sing the praises of communism, never having passed a world history class."
#22 Kids Playing In The Mud, 1960s Glasgow
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#23 Shirley Temple With Terry, The Cairn Terrier Who Played Toto In "The Wizard Of Oz." The Temple Film, "Bright Eyes" (1934) Was One Of The Canine's First Movie Appearances
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#24 French Boys Holding Their Mother's Bags, 1962
Image credits: Historical Pictures
"I could write so much about Richard III and the Princes in the Tower here," says Lewis.
"I have written a biography of Richard III and a book entitled The Survival of the Princes in the Tower to prove it. If I were to swerve that for now, I would say that one of the lingering misconceptions that we have is that the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a revolt by peasants. Whilst peasants were involved, they were not alone.
We call it the Peasants’ Revolt largely because those involved were referred to as rustics, which has become peasants. Rustic at the time meant anyone who lived in the countryside rather than a town. We know from court records after the revolt that many wealthy landowners, merchants, craftsmen, and soldiers were involved in the uprising."
#25 Ejnar Mikkelsen, A Danish Explorer, Was Photographed In 1912 After Surviving Two And A Half Years Stranded In Greenland With Fellow Explorer Iver Iversen
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#26 Two Youngsters At Fairfax High School. Los Angeles, California, 1975
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#27 A Mother And Daughter Portrait From Around 1900. The Object The Girl Is Holding Is A Toy Sailboat
Image credits: Historical Pictures
Woah! Our history is truly fascinating, and there's so much more to learn.
If you're interested in doing that, make sure to check out our previous publications on historical facts or more historical pictures!
#28 A Bicycle For Three, 1920s
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#29 Hungarian Girl In A Walker. This Model Was Called Kati
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#30 Daguerreotype Of A Man Wearing Tinted Glasses And Holding A Cat, C. 1850
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#31 (From Left To Right) 6-Year-Old Josie, 6-Year-Old Bertha, And 10-Year-Old Sophie Who All Work As Oyster Shuckers At A Canning Company At Port Royal, South Carolina, Circa 1911
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#32 A Man And His Dog On The Overhanging Rock In Yosemite National Park, 1924. Photograph By Educational-Bruce
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#33 Sicilian Peasant Telling An American Officer Which Way The Germans Had Gone, 1943
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#34 What Life Was Like In 1930s Hoovervilles
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#35 Front Page Of Newspaper In 1969 When Man First Walked On The Moon
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#36 A Miner Sit Outside Santo Tomas Internment Camp Following Liberation After 4 Years Of Captivity Under The Japanese Army, February 5, 1945, Philippines
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#37 Abraham Lincoln, Seated And Holding A Book, With His Son Tad (Thomas) Leaning On A Table
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#38 The Children Of Hop-Pickers Take Cover In A Trench In Kent, England While Watching A Dogfight Unfold In The Skies Above, 1940
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#39 “Dens Of Death,” New York Slums, 1888-1898
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#40 The Evolution Of Rvs Over The Past 115 Years
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#41 Photo Of An Iceberg Found In 1912 In The Atlantic Ocean. Covered In A Scar Of Red And Black Paint, It Was Believed To Be The Iceberg That Was Struck By The Titanic On The Fateful Night
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#42 Charlie Chaplin Without Makeup, 1916
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#43 On December 13, 1972, During The Final Moonwalk Of Apollo 17, Astronauts Gene Cernan And Jack Schmitt Were Captured In One Of The Mission’s Most Iconic Photos
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#44 The Original Fort Pitt Brewing Company Operated From 1906 To 1957. Photo From 1935, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Us)
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#45 Holocaust Museum, Berlin
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#46 First And Ten Millionth Ford
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#47 In 1901, The Streets Of Spitalfields, London, Were Filled With Children Known As "Nippers," Who Were Often The Primary Caregivers For Their Younger Siblings
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#48 The Aftermath From A B-25 Bọmber Crashing Into The Empire State Building, 1945
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#49 The Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch Street. 1900 vs. 2010
Image credits: Historical Pictures
#50 Feeding Polar Bears From A Tank With Condensed Milk Tins, 1950s
Image credits: Historical Pictures
