Every day between 1925 and 1935, Hachiko, a dog with unwavering loyalty, turned Tokyo’s Shibuya train station into the stage for his daily vigil, hoping against hope for the return of his deceased owner. Hachiko wasn’t just a pet; he was the faithful companion of a university professor, dutifully awaiting his master’s return from work at the local train station each evening. Tragedy struck when the professor passed away suddenly, leaving Hachiko to continue his vigil at the station for nearly a decade....

The 1930s was a decade that produced some of the most iconic and beautiful cars in automotive history. These cars were built during a time when design was king and manufacturers were pushing the limits of engineering and creativity. From the sleek lines of the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic to the luxurious curves of the Cadillac V16, the cars of the 1930s were truly works of art. In this article, we’ll take a look back at some of the most beautiful cars of the 1930s....

These instructional photos were shown as training materials for new hires at Krystal restaurants during the 1960s. They demonstrate examples for employees of how and how not to present themselves behind the counter. The brochure and orientational training film contained instructions such as: “Keep your teeth clean and white. Anybody can have a pretty smile. Naturally, you don’t want to get too familiar with the customers, just be really pleasant and friendly....

These vivid color photographs of Ireland were produced as tourist mementos and postcards using a technique called Photochrom. The collection features the main cities of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Waterford alongside the main tourist attractions of the day. The photochrom technique is a complex method of imbuing black-and-white photographs with realistic color. Glenariff, County Antrim. It was relatively less expensive than real color photography and provided a unique and instantly recognizable style....

In the Victorian era, the woman’s hair was considered an important part of her appearance and it marked her status and her femininity. Women in that era were often expected to grow their hair to great lengths, and it was common knowledge that a woman’s crowning glory was her hair. Growing long hair was done in part so that elaborate updos could be treated using the voluminous hair that grew – as opposed to using rats, pads, or the Victorian versions of hair extensions....

Explore the past and check out forgotten gadgets from the early 1900s. Not every gadget from back then became a big deal. In this exploration, we’ve gathered around 20 inventions from the past – some practical, some not so much. It’s like opening a time capsule filled with interesting stories. From devices that aimed to make life easier to ones that might leave you scratching your head, each gadget has its own tale....

In jails and prisons around the world, tattoos can become a significant part of an inmate’s uniform, not only marking the crime they’re in for but also serving as a way to communicate with others. Arkady Bronnikov, regarded as Russia’s leading expert on tattoo iconography, recently released a collection of around 180 photographs of criminals locked up in Soviet penal institutes. Russian Criminal Tattoo Police Files, published by FUEL, is probably the largest collection of prison tattoo photographs to date, at 256 pages....

Holding hands on each other’s laps, two young men are pictured in the 1880s. Victorians were known for their conservative way of life, but these portraits show that many men of that era were unafraid of showing affection. The provocative black-and-white 19th-century images show men posing in surprisingly intimate embraces. They are seen holding hands, wrapping their arms around each other, sitting on each other’s laps with their legs entwined, and enjoying intimate physical contact without any evident worries....

The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from the South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. They created churches, community organizations, businesses, music, and literature. African Americans of all classes built a community on the South Side of Chicago for decades before the Civil Rights Movement, as well as on the West Side of Chicago. In the spring of 1941, Farm Security Administration photographer Edwin Rosskam visited the Black Belt, wandering the streets and photographing generations of black Chicagoans....

The 1960s were more than just another chapter in fashion history—they were a turning point. It was an era defined by rebellion, creativity, and the rise of youth culture. As society began to question traditional values, fashion followed suit, reflecting a new sense of freedom and individuality. For young women in particular, the decade offered an unprecedented sense of liberation. Gone were the rigid silhouettes of the 1950s; in their place came playful, youthful designs that celebrated movement and personality....

At the dawn of the new millennium, web-based technology was undergoing a transformative phase. Google, though well-known, was just one of many search engines vying for attention and far from the tech giant it would later become. Dial-up internet, complete with its unmistakable connection tone, remained a fixture in countless American households. Meanwhile, file-sharing platforms like Napster and LimeWire were emerging, reshaping how music and digital content were accessed. MP3 players and advancements in 3D graphics signaled the arrival of cutting-edge technology....

Gunners of the USS Hornet score a direct hit on a Japanese bomber, March 18, 1945. The aircraft it a Yokosuka D4Y Suisei. A Japanese plane caught squarely by antiaircraft fire leaves a trail of smoke and flame as it falls toward the ocean. The pilot might have already been dead by the time the bomber was going down; getting knocked out would probably be a small mercy compared to being burnt alive or drowning....

Employee Tammy Swier looks at VCR cassettes tapes at Colfax Video. 1986. Before video stores, movies were solely watched in theaters, leaving studios hesitant to embrace video technology and video stores because they feared for losses in revenues. The first VCRs hit the market in 1975, and shortly thereafter the video rental store boom began. Extraordinary to think that spools of magnetic tape, easily eroded and prone to tangling, were the medium of choice....

Adolf Eichmann awaited trial in Israel, 1961. Adolf Eichmann inspired Hannah Arendt’s famous phrase ‘the banality of evil’ . A career civil servant in Nazi Germany, he was put in charge of administering the ‘Final Solution’ and organized the seizure of Jews from all over Europe and their transportation to the concentration camps to be killed. Other observers also thought he brought to the job the same bureaucratic, unemotional, form-filling attention to detail that he would have given to road maintenance, say, or food rationing....

The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a nine-year period involving the Soviet forces and the Mujahideen insurgents that were fighting to overthrow Afghanistan’s Marxist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government. The Soviet Union supported the government while the rebels found support from a variety of sources including the United States (in the context of the Cold War) and Pakistan. The conflict was a proxy war between the two superpowers, who never actually met in direct confrontation....

As you cruise along the busy streets of any major American city, you can’t miss the countless signs of fast-food joints that decorate the skyline. But before these drive-thrus became a common sight at every highway stop, these fast-food places started out like your local pizza place – with modest beginnings. In fact, the first-ever fast-food spots looked quite different from what you see today. Many times, the founders who started these restaurants didn’t have much money, but they had big dreams....

The Grand Canal by moonlight. These photographs of Belle Époque Venice were processed and colored using the Photochrom process. The Library of Congress’ page on the photochrom process explains it: “Photochrom prints are ink-based images produced through ‘the direct photographic transfer of an original negative onto litho and chromographic printing plates.” The photocrom’s inventor Hans Jakob Schmid came up with the technique in the 1880s and it involves coating a tablet of lithographic limestone with a light-sensitive emulsion, then exposing it to sunlight under a photo negative for up to several hours....

Attacking the Queen, 1981. On 13 June 1981, Marcus Sarjeant joined the crowds for Trooping the Colour, finding a spot near the junction between The Mall and Horseguards Avenue. When the Queen came past riding her 19-year-old horse Burmese, Sarjeant quickly fired six blanks from his starting revolver. The horse was momentarily startled but the Queen brought her under control; she was unharmed. The security quickly reacted and subdued Sarjeant, who told them “I wanted to be famous....

The starving boy in Uganda, 1980. In 1980 Mike Wells took this powerful photograph of a Catholic missionary holding the hand of a starving Ugandan boy. In so many ways it almost looks like the hand is not human. It’s almost the hand of a space alien, a different species, or anything but the hand of a human being. Unfortunately, it can’t be ‘willed’ into being something else, it is the hand of a human being....

Advertising has always been an interesting way to trace how modern society has evolved. At the core, the marketing campaigns are based on what people want and what appeals to them. The 1950s and 1960s were a decade in which most American women were not employed outside the home. Most families had only one car, fast food was not nearly as ubiquitous as it is today, and married women were called housewives and or homemakers....