Fashion in the 1990s marked a notable departure from the extravagant and flashy trends that dominated the 1980s, instead embracing a return to minimalist aesthetics. During the early 1990s, certain late 1980s fashion elements continued to be popular among people of all genders. However, the emergence of grunge and alternative rock music played a pivotal role in catapulting the simple and deliberately unkempt grunge look into the mainstream fashion scene by the year 1994....

“Window Call.” These idyllic photographs, taken by William Morris Grundy, capture the rural life in England during the Victorian era. Born in Birmingham in 1806, Grundy took up photography in 1855 and made dozens of stereoscopic photos, primarily posed genre scenes of rustic pursuits such as hunting, fishing, and farming. The London Stereoscopic Company bought about 200 of his negatives, and individual stereographs still exist. However, Grundy’s work is best known for the twenty original albumen prints based into the anthology Sunshine in the Country, A Book of Rural Poetry Embellished with Photographs from Nature (London, 1861)....

The Isetta was a microcar that was originally designed in Italy during the early 1950s. In the beginning, some people described it as a vehicle that looked like it had a collision between a refrigerator and a scooter. Initially manufactured by the Italian firm Iso SpA, the name Isetta is the Italian diminutive form of Iso, meaning “little Iso”. After the Second World War, the European market demand for small, inexpensive cars inspired engineer and businessman Renzo Rivolta to create one....

In November 1961, the promising young ethnographer Michael Rockefeller vanished along the southern coast of New Guinea. His disappearance captured the world’s attention — not just because he was the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men in history, but because of the disturbing rumors that followed. Officially, he was declared dead by drowning, but over the decades, a darker story has emerged. Investigators, journalists, and even missionaries have gathered testimony suggesting that Rockefeller survived the wreck of his boat, reached shore — and was killed and eaten by members of the Asmat tribe....

Rainey Bethea (born in 1909) was the last person to be publicly executed in the United States. An African-American male, who was about 26 years old, he confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old white woman named Lischia Edwards, and was publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky after being convicted of her rape. Mistakes in performing the hanging, and the surrounding media circus, contributed to the end of public executions in the United States....

An Armenian woman in national costume poses for Prokudin-Gorskii on a hillside near Artvin (in present day Turkey), circa 1910. The Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. In those years, photographer Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green, and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images....

Travel back in time with stunning vintage portraits that offer a captivating glimpse into the diverse cultures of the world, from Brazilian headhunters, Persian hermits to Indian snake charmers, over a century and a half ago. Frank Carpenter embarked on his first global journey at a time when only a minuscule percentage of Americans had ventured abroad—less than one percent, to be exact. Through his photographic dispatches from the farthest corners of the Earth, Carpenter didn’t just share pictures....

In an era marked by industrialization, urbanization, and shifting consumer habits, small family-owned stores held a distinct place in the retail landscape. These establishments, often run by local entrepreneurs and passed down through generations, offered personalized services, specialized goods, and a sense of community that larger retail chains struggled to replicate. These photographs not only document the architectural appearance of these stores but also encapsulate the societal and cultural fabric of the time....

Reichserntedankfest of 1934 in Bückeberg. This is the Reichserntedankfest of 1934 in Buckeberg. That year, 700,000 people participated. Even those who did not support Nazis were totally blown away and emotionally shaken. They had never experienced anything even remotely like this, there were no rock concerts back then. It created a spiritual feeling of sublime and unity among people who were participating. When they were marching back to their tents in the night, they could still see the huge spotlights piercing the sky in the Buckeberg....

Back in the 1920s, long before modern gadgets took over our daily lives, a nifty little invention brought music to people’s pockets. This wonder of the past was called the Mikiphone, a pocket-sized phonograph that let you carry your favorite tunes wherever you went. The Mikiphone, a portable phonograph small enough to fit in one’s pocket, was the brainchild of Hungarian siblings Miklós and Étienne Vadász. It entered mass production under a licensing agreement with Maison Paillard, based in Saint Croix, Switzerland....

Black Friday of 1987, Wall Street. It’s difficult to convey to a modern audience the emotional impact of the stock market’s gyrations in the 1980s, or indeed in any distant decade because the most popular measures of market value have grown so much in the intervening years. For example, on the worst day of the 1929 crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 38 points, an insignificant move in modern markets....

The ruins of Machu Picchu covered in jungle growth in this 1911 photograph taken when Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham first came to the site. In the summer of 1911, the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham arrived in Peru with a small team of explorers hoping to find Vilcabamba, the last Inca stronghold to fall to the Spanish. Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain....

The racers line up at the starting point in Times Square. At the dawn of the 20th century, automobiles were an infant technology with none of the infrastructure we take for granted today: road maps, traffic signals, pavement, gas stations, fast food, parking lots, expressways, or motels. Most people in the world had never seen a car in person. What, then, could be more fun than the first ’round-the-world automobile race under such punishing conditions?...

Young Farmers, 1914 – Photographer: August Sander. In 1914, German photographer August Sander captured a now-famous photo titled “Young Farmers” which is also known as “Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance” . Upon first glance, it may look like a simple snapshot of three nicely dressed young men walking along a dirty road, but there’s so much more you can learn about the photo by examining it closely and by looking at the cultural context of the time....

Admira Ismic and Bosko Brckic pose for a picture after their high school graduation in 1985. Few good things come out of war, and the image of this young couple’s lifeless bodies embracing on the street for days stirs emotions in even the toughest of observers from all sides of the conflict. Slain by snipers’ bullets, the childhood sweethearts’ bodies lay in their final embrace for seven days. By the time they were finally removed from Sarajevo’s Vrbanja Bridge — still entwined — they had become symbols of enduring love caught in a senseless war....

Albert Einstein with Mrs. Valentine Bargmann outside his home in Princeton, NJ, March 14, 1953. (Photo by Esther Bubley). Albert Einstein is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics are together the two pillars of modern physics....

American Marine cradling tiny infant’s barely living body which was found face down in a cave where native islanders had been hiding to escape the fighting between the US and Japanese forces. In a photo that somehow comprises both tenderness and horror, an American Marine cradles a near-dead infant pulled from under a rock while troops cleared Japanese fighters and civilians from caves on Saipan in the summer of 1944....

Ladies, this is how you land a man in 1938-style. We always find these vintage “dating tips” for single women hilarious. Just think about it: “Don’t drink too much, as a man expects you to keep your dignity all evening. Drinking may make some girls seem clever, but most get silly” and “Careless women never appeal to gentlemen, Don’t talk while dancing, for when a man dances he wants to dance....

Built more than 3,000 years ago, Abu Simbel contains two temples, carved into a mountainside. The larger of the two temples contains four colossal statues of a seated pharaoh Ramesses II (1303-1213 B.C.) at its entrance, each about 69 feet (21 meters) tall. The entranceway to the temple was built in such a way that on two days of the year, October 22 and February 22, sunlight shines into the inner sanctuary and lights up three statues seated on a bench, including one of the pharaoh....

During the rule of Queen Victoria (1837 1901), the British shipbuilding industry experienced great strides. Especially after the Industrial Revolution, wooden shipbuilding techniques which had lasted for millennia were radically changed with the introduction of steam propulsion and iron materials. Iron was initially used to reinforce certain parts of a wooden hull and frame, but gradually it became used for more components, with some ships using a timber hull around an iron frame, and others using hulls built of iron plates....