In the early 20th century, sports rapidly grew into a beloved pastime for the rising middle class, and few captured this cultural shift as beautifully as Jacques Henri Lartigue. A passionate sportsman himself, Lartigue’s photography provides a window into the lively world of amateur athletics. His unposed, candid shots, compiled in a luxurious album, document the joy and energy that filled the sporting fields of the era. Whether racing, skiing, tennis, gymnastics, or hang gliding, Lartigue’s images reflect the vibrant spirit of early 20th-century athletics....

Highway of Death, 1991. On Sunday 24, February 1991, allied forces launched a combined ground, air, and sea assault which overwhelmed the Iraqi army within 100 hours. By 26 February, Iraq had announced it was withdrawing its forces from Kuwait, but still refused to accept all the UN resolutions passed against it. Iraqi tanks, armored vehicles, trucks, and troops fleeing the allied onslaught formed huge queues on the main road north from Kuwait to the southern Iraqi city of Basra....

Lennon (left) signing a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman several hours before the murder. According to Chapman he actually had the gun in his pocket when this photo was taken, but he chickened out. He hung around in front of the Dakota getting his nerves up until John and Yoko came home later that night. Chapman waited outside Lennon’s apartment beginning in the afternoon. Lennon and Yoko walked outside to go somewhere and Chapman asked him to sign his record (it was a special edition record, somewhat rare for one reason or another)....

George and Nicky’s mothers, Alexandra and Dagmar, were sisters, which explains why they looked so alike. This picture was taken during the wedding of the Kaiser’s daughter Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia. The wedding, an extravagant affair, took place on 24 May 1913 in Berlin. In a diplomatic gesture, Emperor Wilhelm invited almost his entire extended family. The wedding became the largest gathering of reigning monarchs in Germany since German unification in 1871, and one of the last great social events of European royalty before World War I began fourteen months later....

The Los Angeles snow of 1949 was a rare and unusual event in the city’s history. On January 9th and 10th, 1949, a snowstorm hit the city and the surrounding areas, causing chaos and excitement among the residents. The snowstorm was caused by a weather pattern that brought cold air from Canada and Alaska down to Southern California, where it met with a low-pressure system moving in from the Pacific Ocean...

Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerika bomber, 1942. The Me 264 was designed from the beginning as part of the “Amerika Bomber” project. Its goal was to be able to carry a small load to the United States but also to support U-boat operations far into the Atlantic. The Amerika Bomber was a project to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the contiguous United States from Germany, a distance of about 5,800 km (3,600 mi)....

A victim of a Colombian volcano disaster, Omayra Sanchez was trapped in water and concrete for three days. This photo was taken shortly before she died. On November 13, 1985, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted. Pyroclastic flows exploding from the crater melted the mountain’s icecap, forming lahars (volcanic mudflows and debris flows) which cascaded into river valleys below. One lahar, consisting of three pulses, did most of the damage....

Photo of a cowboy seated next to his horse on a hill, looking down at other horses in Old West Bonham, Texas. June, 1910. The most fascinating part about this picture is how it conveys the rapid social evolution from the era of the old west to the incredible technological advancement of the 20th century. You have to remember, this picture was taken only four years prior to World War I....

In the decades leading up to the 1979 Revolution, Iran Air—widely known by its emblem, the “Homa”—stood as a symbol of ambition, confidence, and global connection. The airline rose rapidly to become one of the most respected carriers of the Jet Age, projecting an image of a nation eager to present itself as modern, outward-looking, and culturally refined. At the heart of this image were its flight attendants, whose presence embodied both professionalism and the aspirations of a changing society....

Nan Wood Graham and Dr. Byron McKeeby in the Gallery at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, September 1942. Grant Wood‘s “American Gothic” shows the images of a man and a woman standing in front of a small wooden house. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron evoking 20th-century rural Americana while the man is adorned in overalls covered by a suit jacket and carries a pitchfork. The plants on the porch of the house are mother-in-law’s tongue and beefsteak begonia...

In the rapidly evolving landscape of education, where traditions and customs are shaped by the ebb and flow of time, the first day of school holds a special place. From the early 1900s to the turn of the millennium, each generation has witnessed the excitement, nerves, and anticipation that mark this momentous occasion. Now, through a remarkable collection of photographs, we have a unique opportunity to delve into the past and catch a glimpse of how the first day of school unfolded over the course of the last century....

Aviation Cadet Thanas inspects an airplane engine. This collection of photos from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi during World War II shows the American war effort at full speed and the air cadets in training. The facility covered 20,000 acres (81 km2) and had 997 hangars, shops, barracks, warehouses, and other buildings. It had 800 instructors taking in classes of 300 new cadets every month. A 980-foot rail-highway bridge and a 400-foot trestle bridge across Oso Bay had been built; a twenty-mile-long railroad was built in thirty-five days....

Settlers move a house with the help of horses during the late 1800s. These vintage photographs from the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States show teams of horses being used to move entire houses to new locations. With the rapid railway and urban development boom, a lot of people found themselves looking to relocate their log cabins, houses, Victorian mansions, and other abodes, and it looks like all they needed were some powerful horses....

In 1976, a unique destination for dining, meeting, and entertainment opened in the heart of New York City: Windows on the World. Situated on the 107th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, it became widely celebrated for its floor-to-ceiling windows, offering sweeping views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. The venue offered a variety of spaces, including the main Windows on the World restaurant, a smaller eatery called Wild Blue (previously known as “Cellar in the Sky” before 1999), and a vibrant bar named The Greatest Bar on Earth, which had earlier been called the Hors d’Oeuvrerie....

Canadians’ enthusiasm for hockey was evident during the Korean War, in which 27,000 Canadian troops participated in the defense of freedom. The winter of 1952 was bone-chilling enough for the Imjingang River to freeze over, a river in northern Gyeonggi-do Province that flows down and across the middle of the Korean Peninsula. At the time, the peninsula was still at war, as the Korean War had broken out in late June 1950....

Franca Viola became a symbol of the cultural progress and the emancipation of women in post-war Italy. In 1966, Italy was rocked by one woman’s courageous efforts to challenge the country’s treatment of rape victims — the lessons of which are sadly still relevant. Franca Viola became the first Italian woman to refuse a “rehabilitating marriage” (“ matrimonio riparatore ” in Italian) with her victimizer after suffering kidnapping and rape....

A sixteen-year-old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, cries being captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3, 1945 A sixteen-year-old German anti-aircraft soldier of the Hitler Youth, Hans-Georg Henke, taken prisoner in the state of Hessen, Germany. He was a member of the Luftwaffe anti-air squad who burst into tears as his world crumbled around him. His father died in 1938 but when his mother died in 1944 leaving the family destitute, Hans-Georg had to find work in order to support the family....

Well before the celebratory ceremonies of 1959, Hawaii occupied a complex and often uncertain place within the American story. Annexed by the United States in 1898, the islands spent more than six decades as a U.S. territory, shaped by global events, cultural exchange, and a growing sense of political awareness among its residents. Early 20th-century Hawaii was not only a strategic outpost in the Pacific but also a society in transition, where daily life unfolded against the backdrop of debates about identity, representation, and belonging....

Born at the height of America’s fascination with speed, flight, and the future, the Oldsmobile Golden Rocket emerged as one of the most striking expressions of Jet Age optimism. Created as a two-seat show car for the 1956 General Motors Motorama, the Golden Rocket was never intended for production. Instead, it served as a bold design statement, pushing Oldsmobile’s styling language into dramatic, space-inspired territory. The fiberglass concept underwent several refinements and continued to tour major auto shows after its debut, most notably appearing at the 1957 Paris Motor Show, where it drew significant international attention more than a year after its initial reveal....

A Bicharin soldier. The Bicharin are a tribe of the Beja nomadic ethnic group that live in southern Egypt and Sudan. The Zangaki brothers were two Greek photographers, active between the 1870s-1890s, who worked in Egypt, producing prints for the tourist trade. They produced some of the finest images of late Victorian Egypt, yet so little is known about them. They were probably Greek Cypriots, although it has been suggested they may have come from Crete....