Lt. V. Rhodes of the WAAC at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, 1943. Women in uniform have always an appeal. She is so amazingly beautiful. The uniforms were meant to be professional, feminine, attractive, and functional. Women were encouraged to be feminine (like wearing red lipstick) for morale. The Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was the women’s branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps(WAAC) on 15 May 1942 by Public Law 554, and converted to full status as the WAC on 1 July 1943....

These photographs capture post-war Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, from 1946 to 1950, revealing the lives of everyday Soviet citizens amidst the city’s profound efforts to rebuild. Scenes range from laborers restoring St. Isaac’s Cathedral to a woman carefully polishing a display piece in the Hermitage Museum. Though the war had ended, Leningrad lay in ruins. Years of relentless air raids, shelling, and fires had devastated the city’s infrastructure—destroying or damaging countless homes, factories, schools, hospitals, power plants, and roads....

Picture taken in 1962 at the Faculty of Medicine in Kabul of two Afghan medicine students listening to their professor (at right) as they examine a plaster cast showing a part of a human body. This is Afghanistan of 1950s and 1960s. Lots of people would think that they will see pictures of a wild, underdeveloped and medieval country with life conditions worse than now. Think again. Fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries, Afghanistan made several tentative steps toward modernization in the mid-20th century....

Deceiving the enemy as to what you are doing is not new. Trying to hide positions from observation is not new, trying to hide whole factories from aerial bombing during the Second World War was new. Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing facilities were critical to the war efforts of Allied forces. One B-17 Bomber cost a little over $200,000 to produce (that’s around $3,6 million in today’s economy). Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese submarines were spotted off San Francisco Bay and near Santa Barbara in 1942....

Romanian demonstrators sit on top of a tank as it passes in front of a burning building, December 22, 1989. Nicolae Ceausescu ruled Romania for 21 years, earning a reputation as a brutal dictator. During his reign, he developed the largest network of spies in Eastern Europe, silenced his opposition with a secret police force known as the Securitate, and eventually threw the nation into tremendous debt and economic turmoil....

Gordon’s back was deeply scarred from whippings by an overseer. The famous “whipped slave” photograph pictures the runaway slave Gordon exposing his severely whipped back to the camera of two itinerant photographers, William D. McPherson and his partner, Mr. Oliver. Gordon had received a severe whipping for undisclosed reasons in the fall of 1862. This beating left him with horrible welts on much of the surface of his back....

Back in the Cold War era, much like other Americans, we used to think that all Soviet women dressed plainly and had tough lives due to their challenging circumstances. We imagined them in simple, practical clothes. But these fashion pictures tell a different story, especially in the years before the Soviet Union ended. While these images are actually scans from the Burda Moden magazine, a Western-based publication printed in Moscow, they reveal that Soviet women’s fashion was more varied and colorful than we had thought....

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the world witnessed a profound shift in human ingenuity. Fueled by an insatiable desire to conquer the uncharted realms of flight, visionaries like the Wright brothers, Otto Lilienthal, and Alberto Santos-Dumont took to the skies with audacity and unwavering determination. These timeless snapshots offer a rare glimpse into the pioneering days of aviation, where visionaries dared to conquer the skies. Humanity’s desire to take to the skies can be traced back to ancient civilizations....

Barbi Benton, born Barbara Lynn Klein on January 28, 1950, is an American actress, model, and singer who rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s. Known for her striking beauty and multifaceted career, Benton made a significant impact on the entertainment industry during her prime. Her early years were marked by an inclination towards the arts and an interest in modeling. At just 16 years old, she began her modeling career, which quickly gained traction due to her enchanting looks and charisma....

Scattered across the fractured landscapes of the Balkans, colossal monuments rise from the earth like remnants of a forgotten civilization. These striking, futuristic forms—often isolated and weathered—once carried deep meaning in a country that no longer appears on any map. Built during the 1960s and 1970s in the now-dissolved Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, these structures were more than memorials. They were ideological beacons, designed to project unity, strength, and a forward-looking national identity in the aftermath of World War II....

Police use a battering ram to forcibly evict a tenant. 1888. When the Irish talk about the “Land War,” they have in mind either three phases of anti-landlord agitation in the late nineteenth century, or, more narrowly, the first of these phases, which lasted from 1879 until 1882. The movement emerged during a severe agricultural depression caused by crop failures and a sluggish market for farm produce. Economic conditions for farmers took a serious downturn in 1877, recovered partially in 1878, but deteriorated again in 1879....

Private Tsuneo Shiroma, of the 522nd Field Artillery Battery B, in a foxhole during the Allied invasion of Italy. 1943. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, many Americans were distrusting and fearful of Japanese-Americans living in the U.S. The Federal government took the unprecedented step of ordering some 110,000 Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent living along the West Coast out of their homes and into ten inland internment camps....

This photograph shows the amounts of butter, milk, bacon, lard, sugar, cheese, tea and jam received by two people per week in Britain. Around 1939, when World War II began, the United Kingdom imported two-thirds of its food, all of which had to be shipped over oceans teeming with German U-boats. The Ministry of Food did not want to risk the lives of sailors for food that would be wasted, and reducing imports also saved money for armaments....

Embark on a captivating journey through time as we delve into the enchanting world of vintage toys. In this article, we invite you to revisit the cherished toys of bygone eras, each a testament to the enduring appeal of childhood imagination and creativity. From the timeless charm of the Easy-Bake Oven to the strategic allure of the Simon Game, these vintage treasures offer a glimpse into the playtime experiences of generations past....

Tsarevich Nicholas (future Tsar Nicholas II) at Nagasaki during his eastern journey, 1891. In the spring of 1891, the 23-year-old Russian prince Nicholas went to Far Eastern Russia for ceremonies in Vladivostok marking the start of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. On his way (by sea) he made an official visit to Japan. The Russian Pacific Fleet with the Tsesarevich stopped in Kagoshima, then Nagasaki, and then Kobe. The young Nicholas had been reading Pierre Loti’s atmospheric novel Madame Chrysanthemum and noted in his diary that he hoped he might acquire a temporary geisha “wife”....

Vibrating belt in 1929. Fitness, as we know it today, may seem to be a relatively modern invention, but physical exercise obviously goes back much further than that. Starting from the early 20th century, people used elaborate contraptions, painful machinery, bizarre devices, and strange poses to get their ideal fit body. To illustrate just how far the industry has come, we’ve collected pictures showing the most bizarre ways people exercised over the past one hundred years....

A picture of a crowd in New York and there is not one unhatted head, 1930 A picture of a crowd in New York and there is not one unhatted head. Margaret Bourke-White shot this bird’s-eye-view of Manhattan’s Garment District —specifically 36th St. between 8th and 9th Aves.—for a FORTUNE magazine story titled “Cloak and Suit”. What happened to the hats? Until the 1960s, hats were very popular with both men and women, so much so that, for a man, going out in public without a hat was seen as a bit like going out without shoes....

These rare glimpses behind the camera lens transport us to a time when practical effects reigned supreme, and creativity knew no bounds. From masterful makeup and prosthetics to awe-inspiring animatronics and meticulously crafted miniatures, these photos capture the remarkable craftsmanship and dedication that brought fantastical worlds to life. In the 1960s marked, miniatures and models became indispensable tools, allowing directors to create awe-inspiring worlds and breathtaking action sequences. From the intricately detailed spaceships of “2001: A Space Odyssey” to the colossal destruction in “The Towering Inferno,” practical effects demonstrated an extraordinary level of craftsmanship....

The 1980s were a decade defined by excess, bold statements, and a sense of anything-goes. Nowhere was this more evident than in the towering hairstyles that dominated the era. For women in the ’80s, big hair wasn’t just a trend—it was a cultural phenomenon that symbolized confidence, individuality, and a whole lot of attitude. This decade was the golden age of music videos, and stars like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and the glam metal bands of the time had a massive impact on fashion and beauty trends....

The Great Exhibition, housed within the ‘Crystal Palace’, was an international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851. It was the first in a series of World’s Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century. The event was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom. The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was organised by Prince Albert, as a celebration of modern industrial technology and design....