My Mind Is Absolutely Blown By These 45 Photos That Are Making Me Look At History And Time Very Differently

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03-04-2025

1. Here's a photo of Dr. Seuss sketching the Grinch (for his then-upcoming book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) in 1957:
2. This is what Niagara Falls looks like almost completely drained:
The US Army Corps of Engineers partially drained Niagara Falls for six months in 1969 to study and prevent erosion of the American Falls.
3. This is a wax figure of Marie Tussaud, aka Madame Tussauds:
4. Below is a photo of The Isleworth Mona Lisa, which some people believe is an earlier version of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa. It features a younger-looking woman with a similar pose and smile. However, its authenticity and origin has been the subject of debate. While some experts argue Leonardo himself painted it, others believe it could be the work of a follower:
5. In 1911, Italian handyman Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre by hiding in a supply closet overnight and walking out with the painting under his coat. Motivated by a sense of patriotism, he believed the artwork belonged in Italy, not France. The painting was missing for two years before Peruggia was caught trying to sell it to an art dealer in Florence. Here's a photo of it being inspected by the Uffizi Museum's director, Giovanni Poggi, after it was recovered:
6. The Winged Victory of Samothrace, an ancient Greek marble statue, was hidden in the Château de Valençay during World War II to protect it from Nazi looting. As part of the Louvre's efforts to safeguard its most precious artworks, the statue was carefully evacuated and concealed until the war ended. After the liberation of France, it was returned to the Louvre. Below are photos of how it was put back into place atop the top of the Daru staircase:
7. CBS's Face the Nation has had many politicians and world leaders appear on the program since it debuted in 1954. But you might not know that Che Guevera was among them. In Dec. 1964, Guevera appeared on the program while in NY. Below is a photo of him taken on the show:
8. This photo of President James K. Polk was taken in 1849 and is the first photo taken of a president of the United States while they were in office:
9. This is the cover of the very first issue of Vogue magazine, published on Dec. 17, 1892:
10. Celebrities on the cover of fashion magazines isn't an entirely new phenomenon. Below is Cary Grant on the cover of GQ for the Sept. 1962 issue and Carol Channing on the cover of the Winter 1964–65 issue:
11. Marilyn Monroe graced the cover of the very first issue of Playboy magazine in December 1953. However, she didn't pose for the magazine. The iconic issue featured a nude photo of Monroe, taken years earlier in 1949, which Hugh Hefner purchased for $500 without her direct involvement. Despite the controversy, the issue was an instant hit, selling over 50,000 copies and further cementing Monroe's place in pop culture history:
12. Here's a photo of Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell in New York (near the corner of Lexington Ave and 52nd St.) shooting the iconic scene in The Seven Year Itch where the air from the subway grate blows her dress up. However, this shoot was never in the film because, despite 14 takes, all the noise from her fans made it impossible to use any of them. It was later refilmed on the 20th Century Fox lot in LA:
As you can see from this production photo, the set built on 20th Century Fox has a different background in the scene:
13. Taken in 1926, this is the first photo of the very first broadcast of a human face transmitted on television. The photo was taken when John Logie Baird gave the world's first public demonstration of television at his laboratory in London:
14. This is what a television set looked like in the mid-'30s:
Yes, TVs existed back then, but they were expensive and rare. Because of WWII, the development of television was delayed/stopped for years.
15. Here's a photo of a broadcast of NBC programming executive Warren Wade interviewing a Bronx schoolgirl about what she expects from television media in 1938:
16. This is legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright visiting the Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, in 1956, which was the very first mall constructed in the US and had opened just a couple of weeks earlier:
17. Aside from the Zapruder film, this is believed to be the last photo of JFK taken while he was alive. This photo was taken two seconds after the fatal shot (he was not immediately killed), when the motorcade was already passing the Texas School Book Depository Building, which can be seen in the background:
18. Jackie Kennedy's iconic pink suit is, of course, forever linked to JFK's assassination. However, she wore the suit publicly at least six times before that day. Below is a photo of her wearing it to visit her sister, Lee Radziwill, in London in March 1962, and when the the Maharajah and Maharani of Jaipur visited the White House in October 1962:
19. You might not know it, but for a short time, the iconic Hollywood Bowl had a fountain in front of the stage. At first, it was built as a reflecting pool in 1953, and in 1959, the fountains were added — designed to create a scenic and elegant backdrop for performances. In 1968, Jimi Hendrix played the Bowl, and fans jumped into the fountain while he played. The fountain was removed in 1972, but to this day, that section of seats is called the Pool Circle/Pool Seats:
20. The iconic Hollywood sign was actually built in 1923 to advertise the Hollywoodland real estate development in the hills below it. The sign was originally only supposed to be up for 18 months, but it became a visual symbol of Los Angeles. Throughout most of the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Hollywood sign read "Hollywoodland" (like in the photo below taken in 1924), with the "land" part only being removed in 1949:
21. Here's a photo of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks putting their handprints and signatures in cement outside the Chinese Theater in 1927 (behind them is Sid Grauman, who built the iconic movie theater). They were the first two celebrities to ever do it:
22. And here's a photo of Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, who, nearly 100 years later, in March of 2025, is the most recent celebrity to put their hands and signature in cement in front of the Chinese Theater:
23. This is a photo of a New York City set built in the backlot of a studio in Hollywood, CA, in the 1920s. There are a lot of details they carefully recreated, including an el (elevated train), which was still commonly used as a lot the city's subways had not been built yet:
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
24. This is a photo of the Cassius M. Clay Battalion of the Union Army defending the White House and President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, April of 1861:
Historical / Corbis via Getty Images
25. This is one of the first photos of the Oval Office when it was built in 1909 by President Taft:
HUM Images / HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
26. Here's a photo of Walt Disney at Disneyland before giving his opening-day speech on July 17, 1955:
University Of Southern Californi / Corbis via Getty Images
27. Shot by Disneyland photographer Renie Bardeau, this is the last photo taken of Walt Disney at Disneyland in 1966:
Disney / Everett Collection
28. Louis Vuitton's rich, storied history is often overshadowed by its continued relevance and desirability today (so it's easy to forget that the brand's legacy of luxury stretches back far). This 1930 Vogue photo of their iconic monogrammed luggage is a testament to how long Louis Vuitton has been synonymous with elegance and exclusivity:
Anton Bruehl / Conde Nast via Getty Images
29. This is what Gucci purses looked like in 1974, and they ranged around $165–185 in price:
WWD / Penske Media via Getty Images
30. In 1953, the Academy Awards were televised for the very first time. Here's a picture that shows how that looked like behind-the-scenes:
Nbc / NBCUniversal via Getty Images
31. Here's a behind-the-scenes photo from the set of the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City, which exists in the same universe as Friends. Matthew Perry's Chandler Bing made a cameo on the show, while on that same episode, Jonathan Silverman's character Jonathan Eliot from another NBC sitcom, The Single Guy, also appeared further linking the shows:
NBC / NBCUniversal via Getty Images
David Schwimmer's Ross Geller made a cameo on the short-lived The Single Guy, playing an old friend of Jonathan. Meanwhile, Lea Thompson's character Caroline also made a cameo in the Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus."
32. The final episode of Friends is the most-watched show of the entire 2000s — 52.5 million viewers watched it. Below is a pic of people watching the finale live in Times Square:
Getty Images
However, that isn't Friends' most-watched episode; that title goes to "The One After the Superbowl" (which aired right after the 1996 Super Bowl) and was watched by 52.9 million viewers.
33. This is a photo of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz rehearsing a scene for the very first episode of I Love Lucy that they would film. BTW, it was the episode "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her," though it would air fourth.
CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
34. This is what an Abercrombie & Fitch store looked like in 1959:
Slim Aarons / Getty Images
35. This is what a drive-in movie theater looked like in 1933:
Ullstein Bild Dtl. / ullstein bild via Getty Images
36. The Palace of Fine Arts that stands today in San Francisco was actually built in the '60s. It was originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition to showcase art and celebrate the city's recovery from the 1906 earthquake. However, it was only meant to be a temporary structure — made of plaster and wood that deteriorated over time. By the 1960s, it had to be completely torn down and rebuilt with steel and concrete to preserve it:
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N / Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
37. This is how NBC filmed its TV title card for the 1948 elections:
Graphic House / Getty Images
38. "Dewey Defeats Truman" is one of the most iconic photos in American history. As you can see, the photo shows President Truman triumphantly holding up a premature Chicago Daily Tribune headline incorrectly declaring his opponent, Thomas Dewey, the winner of the 1948 US presidential election:
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
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However, what you don't usually see is a full photo of where Truman was — he was actually standing on the back of his campaign train when it was taken:
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
39. This is sculptor Gutzon Borglum's 1/12th scale model of what Mount Rushmore National Memorial was supposed to look like. It was never fully completed because of lack of funding:
Vintage Images / Getty Images
40. This is a photo of when Construction began on Mount Rushmore in 1929:
FPG / Getty Images
41. Here's a photo of how TV weather reporters presented forecasts before screens. They would use magnetic or paper maps and manually place the weather symbols on it:
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStoc
42. Because Rockefeller Center remains a top tourist destination and a bustling office hub, it's easy to forget that it's actually pretty old — it was built in the 1930s. Below is a photo of people walking around Rockefeller Plaza in 1933:
The New York Historical Society / Getty Images
43. And here is a photo of it in 1949:
Morse Collection/Gado / Gado via Getty Images
44. Here's a photo of teenage James Dean in the late '40s, when he played on his high school's basketball team. By all accounts, he was pretty good:
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
45. And lastly, on the left is one of the first photos of Queen Elizabeth, taken one month after she was born at her christening in May 1926. On the right is the last photo of the Queen, taken when she met Prime Minister Liz Truss, two days before her death:
Hulton Deutsch / Corbis via Getty Images, WPA Pool / Getty Images