Many of us tend to think of history as a collection of dates to memorize in chronological order, written accounts to pore over, and legislation to learn word for word. But the past survives in more than textbooks and official records. It also lives on in photographs, objects, ephemera, and other material traces of the people, places, and moments that can be difficult to picture through words alone.
This list brings together some of those surviving traces. From major events to quieter moments of everyday life, the collection spans the iconic, the unexpected, and even the seemingly ordinary, offering glimpses into American history and life across different times and places. Let us know which ones you found most intriguing.
#1 Huntington Beach In California Used To Have A Bunch Of Oil Derricks On Top Of It
Image source: Orange County Archives
#2 Actual Pictures Of Native Americans, 1800s, Various Tribes
Image source: ctavrosa
#3 Nypd Policewoman Playing Duck, Duck, Goose, 1970s
Image source: Wolfdk7
These days, it can be easy to think of photographs simply as images. Because for the vast majority of us, that’s how we encounter them. Made up of a bunch of pixels, we mostly see them on screens, as digital files that can be copied, shared, and scrolled past in less than a second. And we take them—plenty of them—just as quickly, often forgetting about them soon after, and very rarely ever actually printing them.
#4 Child Poses In Front Of The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge During Its Construction, Cir. 1963
Image source: statenislandadvance
#5 Thanksgiving Menu At Plaza Hotel NYC, 1899
Image source: Surtock
#6 Psa 10 Graded Woodstock Ticket
Image source: masterbuck10
But there was once a time—in fact, it was this way for much of photography’s history—when a photograph was understood to be a physical thing: something that could be held, displayed, put in an album, sent through the post, or tucked away someplace private. Sure, they captured a fleeting moment in time, but they became concrete, tangible things.
#7 Travel Time From New York, 1800-1930
Image source: [deleted]
#8 Thomas Edison’s Last Breath, Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn Mich
Image source: [deleted]
#9 Us Army Soldier With Crown Of Holy Roman Empire, 1945
Image source: FallOutShelterBoy
What’s particularly interesting about this is that it reminds us that historical photos are not simply images of the past but also objects from the past. They’re records or evidence of people, places, and events, but they’re also artifacts—things people made, owned, used, and passed on. And that means they can tell us something not only about what was captured in the frame, but about the people and world around it.
#10 A Small Picture Gallery Of Americans Taken From The Late 1800s Onward
Image source: Consistent_Zucchini2
#11 Times Square (1978)
Image source: HWKD65
#12 A 23 Year Old Orson Welles In A Color Cbs Publicity Photo In New York, 1938
Image source: TheWallBreakers2017
Writing for the Smithsonian, Steven Lubar and Kathleen Kendrick define artifacts as “the objects we make and use,” arguing that they can offer “another way of approaching the past.” Unlike textbooks, which tend to focus on major documents and events, artifacts can reveal another kind of history, helping us understand the people who made and used them, as well as the values, knowledge, and tastes of the societies around them. “Artifacts,” they say, “are the touchstones that bring memories and meanings to life. They make history real.”
#13 Decay In NYC, 1970s-1980s
Image source: IllustriousCress9774
#14 Aerial View Of The Nearly Completed Verrazano Bridge 1964
Image source: ComplexWrangler1346
#15 1969. Mom Contains Her Baby In A Central Park’s Trash Bin While She Catches Up On Her Crocheting
Image source: OtherwiseTackle5219
Part of what makes them such touchstones is that they can open up the world beyond themselves. Lubar and Kendrick explain that when we take the object as a point of departure, we open up the world “beyond the artifact” and “learn a different kind of history.” When artifacts are imagined in context—not in isolation but against a backdrop of people, places, and events—they “become passageways into history,” they write. Through them, “we can connect to a moment in time, a person’s life, a set of values and beliefs.”
#16 1956
Image source: HWKD65
#17 Radio Row On The Lower West Side Of Manhattan, As Shot By Berenice Abbott In May Of 1936. This Entire Block Was Later Cleared For The Construction Of The World Trade Center
Image source: TheWallBreakers2017
#18 New York City Subway, 1970s
Image source: Tigrannes
It’s an idea that extends naturally to both the photographs and the other material traces in this collection. A photograph might show us a person, building, or event, but the details surrounding the main subject can tell another story. Clothing, cars, shop signs, furniture, and architecture can reveal something about everyday life, technology, commerce, and changing tastes.
A menu, ticket stub, route map showing travel times, or old grammar test can likewise offer unexpected glimpses into everyday life—what people ate, how they traveled, what they learned, and how they spent their time.
#19 Gimbel’s Sky Bridge • Built 1925
Image source: artskooldamage
#20 Artist Keith Haring Attending An Act Up Protest At City Hall In March 1989. He Would Die The Following February From Aids-Related Complications
Image source: licecrispies
#21 The Fold-Out Bed That George Washington Used In The Field During The Revolutionary War
Image source: DonRadebaugh
Of course, none of these traces necessarily tells one complete story. A photograph might capture a brief moment in its subject’s life. But it also forms part of the photographer’s story, the story of someone only incidentally captured in the frame, and our collective story, too. Then there are all the stories that explain how and why the photograph still exists in the present—kept, stored, passed on, digitized, archived. The same can be said of objects like Abraham Lincoln’s hat featured on this list. It can simultaneously act as an eerie trace of his last night, show us something about the fashion of the time, and speak to the craft of the person who designed and made it.
#22 Abe Lincoln’s Hat He Wore The Night He Was Assassinated
Image source: OlBennyofBolton
#23 Dig On His Wicker Chair Too! Can You Imagine Flying Alone For 33.5 Hours Sitting On That!?
Image source: BS2KZ
#24 This 107 Year Old Hot Dog Place’s Original Menu Prices
Image source: TheLoraxOfLouisiana
In other words, as Lubar and Kendrick argue, artifacts can “lead to many stories,” and their meanings can change depending on the context in which they are viewed and interpreted. This means that they can be “interpreted and reinterpreted, viewed and reviewed,” they explain.
And perhaps that’s part of this list’s appeal. These are objects that were made, kept, preserved, maybe passed down, and ultimately reproduced as images on our screens. And while they might be old, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re done telling us things.
#25 This Is What New York City Looked Like From Space On 9/11/2001
Image source: nasa
#26 Test From American 8th Grade In 1912
Image source: Flares117
#27 Zoot Suit Riots
Servicemen and white civilians rioted in Los Angeles, violently targeting Mexican American youths wearing distinctive zoot suits while local police largely watched or arrested the victims in 1943.
Image source: John T. Burns
#28 The Lattimer Massacre
In 1892, Pennsylvania sheriff’s deputies fired indiscriminately into a peaceful crowd of striking immigrant coal miners, who were mostly Slavic, Polish, and Lithuanian. They killed 19 workers.
Image source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
#29 Operación Espalda Mojada
In 1954, the US government mass-deported over a million people of Mexican descent, sometimes abandoning them in the Mexican desert with no food or water.
Image source: Oakland Museum of California
#30 Greensboro Massacre
In 1979, members of the K*K and the American N*zi Party opened fire on a Communist Workers’ Party anti-Klan protest in North Carolina, k**ling five people while local police noticeably delayed their response.
Image source: The Romero Institute
#31 Anti-Drug Abuse Act
In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Ab*se Act, establishing a harsh 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between cr*ck c*caine (predominantly used by Black Americans) and powder c*caine (predominantly used by white Americans), fueling mass incarcerations.
Image source: National Archives and Records Administration
#32 Tulsa Race Massacre
In 1921, a white mob destroyed the affluent Greenwood District, using private planes to drop incendiary devices on businesses and homes. And everything was left out of history lessons until fairly recently, for some reason.
Image source: United States Library of Congress
#33 Various Photos Of NYC From 1800’s-1900’s
Image source: lilac2481
#34 A Very Small Picture Gallery Of Americans, From The Mid 1800s To Mid 1900s
Image source: Consistent_Zucchini2
#35 Women Vote For The First Time In The USA, New York City (1920)
Image source: Visible-Safety2400
#36 Times Square 1898-1900
Image source: Ancient-Coffee3983
#37 1931
Image source: eldersveld
#38 Staten Island Chef Puffs A Cigar While Holding A Beer In March 2003, A Night Before The NYC Smoking Ban Went Into Effect
Image source: statenislandadvance
#39 Manhattan (1918)
Image source: HWKD65
#40 Photos Of A Bowery Bar, 1974
Image source: Gallery98
#41 Does Anyone Know The Exact Location? Lower East Side In The Early 70s
Image source: realInjusticeadct
#42 Then And Now West 207th Street
Image source: ComplexWrangler1346
#43 This Is Believed To Be The Oldest Photograph Taken Of NYC. It Was Taken At Broadway Between Franklin And Leonard Streets, May 1850
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#44 Dumbo (1974 )
Image source: HWKD65
#45 Manhattan In The 70’s & 80’s
Image source: lilac2481
#46 Passed This Excavation Activity At Wall Street And Water This Afternoon. This Would Have Been Some Of New York’s Earliest Landfill. 400 Years Old?
Image source: [deleted]
#47 The Times Bulding Under Construction 1903
Image source: Ancient-Coffee3983
#48 Blizzard In NYC 1888. Madison Ave And 40th Street
Image source: lilac2481
#49 An Empty NYC During The Pandemic 2020
Image source: tascena
#50 First Aerial Photo Of Manhatten 1906
Image source: Ancient-Coffee3983
#51 My Grandfather Arrived On May 17, 1923 From Germany And Took This Photo
Image source: BoomOp
#52 Rip To Sonny Rollins, The Last Surviving Musician From Art Kane’s Legendary 1958 Photograph “A Great Day In Harlem.”
Image source: chacabuo74
#53 The New York – Chicago Mercury Train In 1936
Image source: Wild-Dig-8003
#54 1956. Hell’s Kitchen. A Little NYC Boy Named Willie Makes His Way In The Street
He Visits A Woman In Her Apartment Window And Stops Outside A Butcher Shop Playing/Swinging From Its Awning Bar And Lastly Willie Walking Over 12 Stacked Garbage Cans As His Friend Watches. Ken Heyman, Photog.
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#55 December 5, 1933. Rockefeller Center And Rca Building From 515 Madison Avenue
Image source: eldersveld
#56 44th & Broadway 1982 Times Square
Image source: lilac2481
#57 1926. A Tough Route To Traverse Along Orchard Street, Lower East Side Manhattan
Image source: OtherwiseTackle5219
#58 NYC Then And Now
Image source: lilac2481
#59 Broadway & W204th St C.1900
Image source: lilac2481
#60 Manhattan NYC 1994. Can Anybody Identify The Location?
I Was Going Through Some Old Photos Of My First Trip To New York City And Came Across This One. I Always Loved The Image And Now It Seems Very Of It’s Time. I’d Love To Hear If Anyone Recognizes The Place And Can Tell Me The Location. Thanks!
Image source: CarolKirkwoodforPM
#61 January 8 1996 Great Snowfall Event. NYC Hit With A Blizzard Dumping 30 Inches In Some Areas
Image source: OtherwiseTackle5219
#62 Canal Street, 1981, Punk Rock And Pearl Paint
Image source: archives100
#63 Washington Square Park In 1958 Had Cars Running Through It
Image source: Sort_of_Frightening
#64 A Member Of The Harlem Hellfighters (369th Infantry Regiment) Poses For The Camera While Holding A Puppy He Saved During WWI, 1918
Image source: lotusflower64
#65 3/6/1970…i Was Home From College, When We Heard A Sonic Boom
An Hour Later, I Went Out For Some Groceries. When I Crossed 11th Street At 5th Ave, I Saw A Huge Crowd Gathered Behind A Barricade. I Asked Some Short Guy What Happened. His Reply “They Blew Up My House!”.` It Was Dustin Hoffman
Image source: oldnyker
#66 Park Avenue In 1920s New York
Image source: discovering_NYC
#67 Drug Store In Penn Station 1910
Image source: lilac2481
#68 Demolition Of Hudson Terminal/Construction Of The Original World Trade Center
Image source: felixrex3
#69 59 1/2 Mulberry Street In Manhattan’s Lower East Side 1888
Image source: lilac2481
#70 NYC 1940’s-1960’s
Image source: lilac2481
#71 Men Eating Fresh Clams From A Pushcart Peddler In The Italian Neighborhood Of Mulberry Bend In New York City. C.1900. Loc
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#72 Park Ave. (August, 1962)
Image source: HWKD65
#73 Prince At Sam Goody In NYC 1988
Image source: lilac2481
#74 Selling ‘The Black Panther’ On Times Square, 1973
Image source: Sort_of_Frightening
#75 Times Square 1976
Image source: ComplexWrangler1346
#76 Some Beautiful Cities Of The Americas
Image source: NuevoPeru
#77 Statue Representing The Americas In The Country Of Malta
Image source: [deleted]
#78 A Very Small Gallery Of Shots Taken By Photographer Max T. Vargas In Bolivia And Peru, Taken Early To Mid 1900s
Image source: Consistent_Zucchini2
#79 Saw This Pan-American Ww2 Poster For The United Mexican States And USA. Is It Legit?
Image source: Mac-Tyson
#80 Apocalyptic Bronx, 1978
Image source: Sort_of_Frightening
#81 Nassau Street On The Corner Of John Street (August, 1946)
Image source: HWKD65
#82 Ursuline Convent Riots
A violent anti-Catholic mob burned down a Catholic convent and school in Charlestown, Massachusetts, driven by conspiracy theories and religious bigotry in 1834.
Image source: Boston.com
#83 NYC Draft Riots
During the Civil War, white mobs burned the Colored Orphan Asylum in Manhattan to the ground while children were still inside.
Image source: British Library
#84 Mountain Meadows Massacre
In 1857, Mormon militiamen, along with allied Native American auxiliaries, massacred approximately 120 civilian emigrants traveling through Utah on their way to California.
Image source: worldhistory
#85 Anybody Remember Cbgb?
Image source: Prudent_Researcher70
#86 On The Long Island Highway New York 1974
Image source: snocodilesfrurtai
#87 Bronx River 1902
Image source: lilac2481
#88 Natural Wonders Of The Americas!
Image source: NuevoPeru
#89 River Basins Of The Americas
Image source: Logicist
#90 Cartagena – One Of The Beautiful Cities Of The Americas
Image source: Logicist
#91 The Pan-American Union Building In Washington D.c. Serves As The Headquarters Of The Organization Of American States
Image source: NuevoPeru
#92 Twa Terminal At Idlewild Airport Before The Name Was Changed To John F. Kennedy Airport C.1962
Image source: lilac2481
#93 Old Photos Of Snowstorms In NYC
Image source: lilac2481
#94 New York City, 1912
Image source: HWKD65
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