Some of these are absolutely mind-boggling, but what makes most of them so powerful is that they were taken in the past century, just one or two generations away from us.
1
Hitlers officers and cadets celebrating Christmas, 1941
2
Suntan vending machine, 1949
3
Measuring bathing suits if they were too short, women would be fined, 19208242s
4
Martin Luther King with his son removing a burnt cross from their front yard, 1960
5
Hotel owner pouring acid in the pool while black people swim in it, ca. 1964
6
Lifeguard on the coast, 19208242s
7
Artificial legs, UK, ca. 1890
8
Mom and son watching the mushroom cloud after an atomic test, Las Vegas, 1953
9
Mother hides her face in shame after putting her children up for sale, Chicago, 1948
10
Austrian boy receives new shoes during WWII
11
Walter Yeo, one of the first to undergo an advanced plastic surgery and a skin transplant, 1917
12
Christmas dinner during Great Depression: turnips and cabbage
13
The real Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, ca. 1927
14
Last prisoners of Alcatraz leaving, 1963
15
Melted and damaged mannequins after a fire at Madam Tussauds Wax Museum in London, 1930
16
35. A space chimp posing to camera after a successful mission to space, 1961
17
Illegal alcohol being poured out during Prohibition, Detroit, 1929
18
Princeton students after a freshman vs. sophomores snowball fight, 1893
19
23 year-old Evelyn McHales suicide she jumped from the 83rd floor of the Empire State Building and landed on a United Nations limousine, 1947
20
First morning after Sweden changed from driving on the left side to driving on the right, 1967
21
106-year-old Armenian Woman guards home, 1990
22
Unpacking the head of the Statue of Liberty, 1885
23
3. Elvis in the Army, 1958
24
Animals being used as part of medical therapy, 1956
25
Testing of new bulletproof vests, 1923
26
Charlie Chaplin at age 27, 1916
27
Hindenburg Disaster, May 6, 1937
28
Circus hippo pulling a cart, 1924
29
9. Annette Kellerman promotes womens right to wear a fitted one-piece bathing suit, 1907. She was arrested for indecency
30
Annie Edison Taylor, the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, 1901
31
Woman With A Gas-Resistant Pram, England, 1938
32
Baby cages used to ensure that children get enough sunlight and fresh air when living in an apartment building, ca. 1937
33
13. The original Ronald McDonald, 1963
34
Disneyland Employee Cafeteria in 1961
35
Advertisement for Atabrine, anti-malaria drug, in Papua, New Guinea during WWII
36
Soldier shares a banana with a goat during the battle of Saipan, ca. 1944
37
Little girl with her doll sitting in the ruins of her bombed home, London, 1940
38
Construction of the Berlin wall, 1961
39
Unknown soldier in Vietnam, 1965
40
Bookstore in London ruined by an air raid, 1940
