Dr. Harvey Cushing, renowned in part for Cushing’s Syndrome, was a pioneering figure in the field of neuroscience. He performed some of the earliest successful brain surgeries and was instrumental in advancing medical techniques. Above all, Cushing was the first to employ X-rays to diagnose brain tumors and contributed to the development of the electro-cautery device, which minimizes blood loss by sealing blood vessels as they are cut. His work is documented in a series of haunting portraits that reveal patients before and after their surgeries....

In the early 1960s, visiting the Dutch Antilles (now the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten), Dutch businessman Alfred “Freddy” Heineken encountered a surprising problem: waste. The islands lacked proper infrastructure to collect and reuse empty beer bottles, a significant portion of which were his own Heineken brand. The sheer volume of discarded bottles – he could barely walk 15 feet on the beach without stepping on one – alarmed him for two reasons....

Georges Blind, a member of the French resistance, smiling at a German firing squad, October 1944. This was a mock execution attempting to get the resistance fighter, Georges Blind, to talk. It didn’t work. Georges did not divulge any information. It’s interesting how they’ve placed him at the corner of the building rather than against the stereotypical flat wall. It must make ricochet injuries to the firing squad members much less likely....

In the spring of 1940, an emboldened Germany asserted itself as a modern conqueror of nations, successfully invading and occupying six countries in fewer than 100 days. On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark, which capitulated in a mere six hours. At the same time, Nazi warships and troops were entering Norwegian waters, attacking ships, landing troops, and starting a conflict that would last for two months. The western European invasion began at 2:30am on May 10th, involving infantry crossing into Holland and Belgium and joined by German paratroopers taking the Belgian fort at Eben-Emael and its 2,000-strong garrison with the loss of just six German paratroopers....

Schienenwolf destroying rail tracks during German retreat, 1944. These pictures show the German troops in the Soviet Union destroying the railroad during an organized retreat. The Schienenwolf (Rail Wolf), sometimes also referred to as a Schwellenpflug (Sleeper Plough) was a German rail vehicle built to destroy rail lines through the use of an immensely strong, hook-shaped armored plough. The German railroad ploughs were produced by the Krupp factory in 1942....

Ferenc Szálasi was tried by the People’s Tribunal in Budapest in open sessions and sentenced to death for war crimes and high treason. Ferenc Szálasi was the leader and all-powerful head of the fascist Arrow Cross movement, the regime that came to power in Hungary with the armed assistance of Nazi Germany on October 15-16, 1944. After that date, the fate of hundreds of thousands of Jews was in his hands....

Packing up human skulls, 1948. Attendants from the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College Of Surgeons packing up some of the 3,000 human skulls stored in a shed in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, before their transfer to the Natural History Museum, July 1, 1948. The skulls include those of Chinese pirates, Eskimos, and Maoris. Each of the skulls has a serial/catalog number on the forehead. Many institutions in the United Kingdom possess a variety of cultural items and human remains from countries around the globe....

Nakoaktok men in ceremonial dress, with long beaks, crouching on their haunches. The Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw (or Kwakiutl) are Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous people. Most live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland, and on islands around Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait. Originally made up of about 28 communities speaking dialects of Kwak’wala — the Kwakwaka’wakw language — some groups died out or joined others, cutting the number of communities approximately in half....

Two fliers of the 8th Bomber Command clad in high altitude flying clothes including sheepskin coats & helmets, oxygen masks and sunglass goggles, at airdrome in southern England. During World War II, the now-legendary VIII Bomber Command (often referred to as the Eighth Air Force) served as the principal American force assembled to attack Germany from the air. For several critical years in the early and mid-1941s, B-24 and B-17 bombers—the Flying Fortresses—from the “The Mighty 8th”, often in tandem with Royal Air Force fighters, crossed the Channel and hit strategic towns and cities in Nazi-held Europe....

Preparing for an assault on a warehouse in Stalingrad, most likely in the latter part of 1942. By September 1942, a brutal hand-to-hand battle was being waged inside Stalingrad . As they fought from house to house and street to street, the Germans found that all of the tactical advantages they had possessed in fighting across the steppes were lost in the close confines of the city. Tanks and the mechanized strategy of Blitzkrieg counted for nothing in urban warfare....

In the swinging decade of the 1960s, a revolution was underway. The miniskirt, an audacious and provocative garment, burst onto the fashion scene, captivating women and challenging societal norms. With its hemline daringly rising above the knee, the miniskirt became a symbol of liberation, individuality, and feminine rebellion. This iconic fashion statement not only reshaped the wardrobes of women across the globe but also played a pivotal role in sparking a cultural revolution....

Russian soldiers, one of them wearing a WW2 German helmet, overlooking Grozny, 1999. This is Second Chechen War, shot from Kirovo, near Grozny. They are not marines, just motorized infantry. Regarding the helmet, the German Nazi helmet was seen as a talisman, as a good omen sign. These soldiers’ drab-olive gear and black beanies look just like what the inappropriately used Russian “Naval Infantry” (known as MorPekh) were wearing during the First Chechen....

Simone is pictured taking cover during the liberation of Paris in August 19, 1944. Members of the French Resistance are photographed in the midst of a battle against German troops during the Liberation of Paris. We see a man in makeshift army fatigues to the left and a young man on the right. Then, most strikingly, we see a woman in shorts, a patterned top, and a military hat in the center....

Soviet soldier in the liberated village. This soldier and his companions just arrived and liberated her village. She is greeting the Soviet Army. Photo taken after the Battle of Moscow, Soviet counteroffensive, December 1941. Original title: “ In the liberated village “. Author: Ivan Shagin. By the start of December 1941, German soldiers had crossed the Moscow-Volga canal and forward units were just twelve miles from the Kremlin. But this was as close to the Soviet capital as the Wehrmacht would ever get....

“Vertumnus – Rudolf II,” depicts Rudolph II (1552-1612), Holy Roman Emperor from 1576, as Vertumnus, the ancient Roman god of seasons who presided over gardens and orchards. 1590. A cucumber forms a bulbous nose; the open maul of a wolf simulates an eye; a striking iron is an ear; a shark is a mouth; a pile of books composes a torso. These are some of the startling details in the composite paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) that are made up of disparate but related elements....

Dresden in ruins after Allied bombings, February 1945. At the end of World War II, the city of Dresden was in ruins, all its buildings destroyed and thousands of civilians dead. The scale of the death and destruction, coming so late in the war, along with significant questions about the legitimacy of the targets destroyed have led to years of debate about whether the attack was justified, or whether it should be labeled a war crime....

Isaac and Rosa, slave children from New Orleans. Photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N. Y. 1863. The boy and girl looked toward the camera. They were just old enough to understand the task assigned to them: to stand very still, with arms linked, and direct their gaze to the contraption in front of them. Isaac was eight and Rosa, six. How two former slave children from Louisiana ended up in a Broadway photographer’s studio in 1863 requires some explanation....

Migrant Mother, 1936. Dorothea Lange took this photograph in 1936, while employed by the U.S. government’s Farm Security Administration (FSA) program, formed during the Great Depression to raise awareness of and provide aid to impoverished farmers. In Nipomo, California, Lange came across Florence Owens Thompson and her children in a camp filled with field workers whose livelihoods were devastated by the failure of the pea crops. Recalling her encounter with Thompson years later, she said: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet....

These photos, taken by Farm Security Administration photographer Arthur Rothstein, show cowboys and dudes from the Quarter Circle U Ranch in Big Horn County, Montana as they gather their herds for the seasonal roundup. Roundups were held within a specific rangeland area and were not used to move cattle from one point to another. Instead, roundups were the process of gathering and collecting all the cattle grazing in that specific area....

Mourning dress is most commonly associated with the Victorian era, despite being a part of wardrobes for centuries prior. This period’s prominence in the history of mourning attire is largely due to Queen Victoria, who famously wore mourning dress for forty years following the death of her husband, Prince Albert. In Victorian society, black clothing was a recognized symbol of mourning, but the customs surrounding it were far more intricate....