This article showcases a collection of rare historical photos, many of which you have probably never seen before. These images offer a unique glimpse into moments from the past that aren’t often captured in traditional history books.
Whether it’s a well-known event seen from an uncommon angle, an intimate snapshot of a famous figure, or an everyday scene from a time long gone, these photos provide fresh insights and a deeper understanding of history.
Through these rarely-seen but unique images, this article will explore stories and moments in history that were previously overlooked or lost to time, giving us a new perspective on the world as it once was.
A Portrait of ten Chiefs – 1891Marilyn Monroe visits a soldier with an injured back in Japan, 1954The Great Sphinx of Giza before and after excavationMark Twain lying in bed at home in 1909. He passed the following year. The photo is not colorized; this is an Autochrome Lumiere.A US airman and his girlfriend in Saigon, 1971.$170 for the cost of one semester at Harvard in 1869Four generations who fought in four different wars.In the 1980s, the crown of the Statue of Liberty was a popular spot for tourists.Chris Farley hanging out with his dad in the 1990s.Luxembourg’s Josy Barthel cries on the podium after winning the 1500m race at the 1952 Olympics as the band tries to improvise Luxembourg’s national anthem since the organizers didn’t have it.Actress Anita Ekberg meets Paparazzi outside of her house with a bow and arrow after being relentlessly followed by them all night. 1960.Man poses for a photo in-front of Soyuz rocket, (1980s), Baikonur, Kazakh SSRA worm vending-machine. 1957Showgirls play chess between shows at New York’s Latin Quarter Nightclub, 1958A demonstrator hitting the Berlin Wall in 1989 The Smallest House in Great Britain, also known as the Quay House, is a tourist attraction on the quay in Conwy, Wales.A US Air Force lieutenant is held captive by a young North Vietnamese soldier, 1967The first ever Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center in 1931 San Fernando Valley’s Satans Slaves Motorcycle Club before becoming Hells Angels. Circa 1970sPhotographer Otto Ludwig Bettmann captures the Grand Prix Monza in 1966Henry Cabot Lodge, points the bugging device hidden in the Great Seal.A public urinal located in Paris,1875Tigers’ fans ‘celebrate’ the World Series victory. They defeated the San Diego Padres, 4 games to 1. Detroit, 1984Annie Edson Taylor poses with her cat and the barrel she rode over Niagara Falls in 1901.Animal medical therapy in 1956.A menorah stands on the windowsill of a Jewish home across from Nazi Party headquarters in Kiel, Germany in 1932.A Dutch athlete receives a portrait of Adolf Hitler as a sports prizeA French women welcomes an American soldier two days after liberation. Strasbourg, France, 22 November 1944.105mm shells from an allied bombardment all fired in a single day on German lines, 1916.A California National Guard soldier escorts a surfer out of Venice Beach, Los Angeles, after it is shut down to prevent rioting or any large gathering of rioters there during the 1992 Los Angeles riots May 2, 1992.A view of the U.S. Capitol Building dome under construction in 1857Anti-Apartheid protesters sprayed with a water cannon shooting purple dye to mark the demonstrators for arrest. South Africa, 1989.A wheat field in the heart of Manhattan, 1982.An anti-communist revolutionary holds a Molotov cocktail behind his back during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.After astronomical calculations and a 3-year wait for the right moment, photographer Leonardo Sens took this photo.Renaissance Circus Trio, a group of acrobats performing a gravity-defying stunt atop the Rockefeller Center in New York City in the early 1930s.Confederate and Union soldiers shaking hands at a Battle of Gettysburg reunion, 1913.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is attacked by States Rights Party member Jimmy Robinson as King tries to register at the Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama, on January 18, 1965.U.S. Marines holding scaled-up models of rifles at Camp Pendleton in October, 1956.A desert of fire Kuwait, 1991Woman jumping over 6 of her classmates, 1952.The first “photo” of Mars (1965). This image was hand-colored by NASA scientists using the raw image data from spacecraft Mariner 4.Ota Benga (1904-1906) — A Mbuti Pygmy, born in Congo Free State in 1885. He was sold to an American explorer for display at the 1904 World’s Fair. He was then housed in the Bronx Zoo primate house.Florence Thompson, the Migrant Mother in Dorothea Lange’s famous 1936 photo, holds up her likeness during an interview after her identity was made known, October 10, 1978A barge filled with Kherson watermelons on the Dnipro river, (1984), Kyiv, Ukrainian SSRWalt Disney, 1906, with his sister Ruth.Protestors in May 1978 after a young Bangladeshi textile worker called Altab Ali was murdered in east London. It was a racially motivated killing.November 1966, stagnant air trapped toxic smog over New York City for three days, killing 168 people.Bryn Owen aged 17 with his Vespa scooter, which has 34 mirrors and 81 lights on the front and back, all bought with his pocket money, Leicestershire, England. 1983.Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, last war chief of the Crow Nation. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII. He led a raid against a German position, disarming them and taking them prisoner. He then stole their horses. He died in 2016, aged 102.Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins born in Brighton, 1908.Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen photographed by Steve Emberton, 1978. A Dutch aircraft listener from the 1930s.Two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the American Civil War, 1910.Muhammad Ali with young fan in a diner, 1970 Carrie Fisher with George Lucas on the set of ‘Return of the Jedi’ An 18-year-old Diana Spencer working as a nanny in 1979.Stevie Wonder visiting a children’s school for the blind.A balloon apron is suspended to defend London from air attacks, 1915A London cafe owner declares his policy in the event of an invasion during WWII (1940s)British schoolgirls in Hyde Park, London, protest caning, a form of corporal punishment, 1972.A little girl holds penguin’s flipper and they together around in the London Zoo, 1937.Adam West as Batman filming a road safety film for children in London, 1967A man with pigeons on his arms and shoulder as he feeds them outside St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, England, January 1920. WWI. Protection of monuments during the war. Sandbags protecting the portals of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1918. Helen Keller visits wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Texas, 1944 An American soldier chats with a sunbathing German girl in postwar Berlin, Germany, in 1945Poon Lim, a Chinese sailor who survived alone adrift on this life raft for 133 days, eventually being rescued in 1943 off the coast of Brazil.Northern Ireland, The Bogside, Londonderry 1971. Photo by Don McCullinThe luxuries of flying in the past as shown here in this Qantas Airways 747 upper deck in 1971Frank Herbert signing copies of Dune, the best-selling Sci-Fi novel of all-time, 1971 The Twin Towers under construction at the World Trade Center, 1971US Marines lined up for their haircuts, 1971, photo by Eddie AdamsWorkmen remove a Ferrari Dino 246 GTS that was found buried in the yard of a home in LA, Feb 1978. The car has been reported stolen in 1974.A KGB agent runs through the night to escape capture in Wellington, New Zealand in September 1974. The first day of class after federal courts mandated busing to end de-facto segregation in Boston’s public school system. Valerie Banks was the only student to show up for her geography class, Boston, Massachusetts, September 1974 Tasmanian bridge disaster. Tasmania, Australia. 1975Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet seated next to Imelda Marcos, wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, at the funeral of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, 1975Children in costume during Holy Week, Andalusia, Spain, 1975Bill and Hillary Clinton on their wedding day, 1975. Cannabis rights activist Ben Masel smoking a joint while voting in the 1976 Presidential election. Taking advantage of an apparent law that prohibits arrest while voting. “Lots of Liquor” – New York City Blackout, July 13, 1977“Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa , seated on his golden throne for his coronation, Bangui, Central African Republic – December 4, 1977German citizens celebrating their countries reunification, ending 45 years of division between East and West. Berlin, 3 October 1990.Soviet rock fans attend a concert in Moscow on September 28, 1991. Half a million people jammed an airfield to see the Soviet Union’s biggest Western rock concert, touted as a gift to Russian youth for their resistance last month’s coup.A Comanche woman and her son in a cradleboard, sometime between 1907-1930.A man and his ‘Goatmobile’, early 1900s.A merchant being pushed in a wheelbarrow down a street in Shanghai. China, 1938A protective pattern was spread across a farm near Walsh, Colorado by a farmer using two tractors (upper right) during the Dust Bowl. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, 1954.A rare example where an engineer thought about the mechanic. (1950s)A Roman grave marker for pouring libations (wine, milk, honey, water or oil) into the graveAn Afghani man poses with his custom-made bus by combining a Mil Mi-8 helicopter fuselage and a KamAZ truck. (Afghanistan, late 1980s)An Irish Traveller Family, photographed in Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland, 1954. A fascinating Kodachrome by Inge Morath.Boston City Hall, Massachusetts 1865-1969.Thousands of Albanian refugees arrive in Bari, Italy, to escape the collapse of communis in 1991A group of camels against a backdrop of burning oil fields, sabotaged by Iraqi troops. Gulf War, Kuwait, 1991. Photo taken by McCurry. Exhausted U.S. Army nurse Amy Stuart, 5th MASH unit in Saudi Arabia naps on a cot while hugging a teddy bear sent by her family during Operation Desert Storm (Feb. 22, 1991). President George HW Bush gazes at the Capitol in a helicopter after leaving Clinton’s inauguration. 1992A California National Guard soldier escorts a surfer out of Venice Beach, Los Angeles, after it is shut down to prevent rioting or any large gathering of rioters there during the 1992 Los Angeles riots (May 2, 1992)Reagan and Gorbachev at Reagan’s California Ranch, 1992.Denzel Washington serves as an honorary police chief for a New York police station in the 1960s. A couple on the New York City subway, 1980. Photo by Carrie Boretz.A boy shares the news of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight with local shepherd (1961) USSRApple’s third co-founder Ronald Wayne, sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976.Bosnian Muslim refugees arrive at New York’s JFK International Airport, 1993’79 Camaro used to deliver supplies to Sarajevo under siege during Bosnian war, 1993O.J. Simpson running from police on June 17, 1994.Activists carry a mile-long rainbow banner through New York City to mark the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. June 26, 1994.Socks the Cat sitting behind President Clinton’s desk in the Oval Office. January 7, 1994.Colombian defender Andres Escobar on the ground after scoring an own goal against the USA at the 1994 World Cup.A Croatian soldier and his girl, saying farewell to each other, 1995.An outdoor hockey game in Sweden is cut short, 1959.A distracted man accidentally pours his beer on Chicago White Sox outfielder Al Smith. 1959A young girl hits her head against the door. Photographed in Seoul, 1958. David Attenborough entertains Prince Charles and Princess Anne with a cockatoo. 1958USS Enterprise (CV-6), one of the few pre-WW2 aircraft carriers to survive and the most decorated US Navy Warship in WW2, including the only one to receive the highest honor from the Royal Navy, was towed to be sold for scrap on August 21, 1958.A little girl having fun pretending to talk on the telephone, Japan, 1958. 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent at Christian Dior’s Funeral, 1957 Union Boss Jimmy Hoffa flipping off attorney Robert Kennedy during a Senate committee hearing in 1957.Volunteer military nurse, Virgínia Portocarrero, in Italy during her time in the Brazilian expeditionary Force 1943-1945. Very popular among the troops for her beauty, she was the subject of songs. Returning as a decorated nurse, she rejoinedthe army in 1957, becoming a captain in 1963.George, a white cat who lives at the top of one of the pylon supports of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, keeps a watchful eye on the city below. 1957A woman overlooking a snowy mountain pass in The Pyrenees Mountains, France – 19561956: Young “Teddy Boys” somewhere in England.Soviet gym teachers parade in Moscow, 1956 Amish men being booked into a Pennsylvania jail for refusing to send their children to high school, 1955. Walt Disney with the original Mickey Mouse Club lineup. 1955Florida’s last Civil War veteran, Bill Lundy, poses with a jet fighter, 1955.Charles Thompson greets his new classmates at Public School No. 27 in September 1954, less than four months after the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was unconstitutional. Charles was the only African-American child in the school. Photo by Richard Stacks for the Baltimore Sun.John F. Kennedy leaving on a gurney from the hospital following spinal surgery, as his wife Jacqueline stands over him. December 1954.A “Trench Raider” during WW1. Both sides had them, and they were sent in small groups that snuck into enemy forward trenches to attack. They were armed with a revolver, several knives, and brass knuckles. It was a fully volunteer position.Gold depository at the New York federal reserve in 1959.22-year-old Penha Goes, a tribeswoman in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, 1997A lipstick tester from the 1950s. Hired to test the durability and color of lipstick.Pregnant Jackie Kennedy enjoying a cigarette, 1963McDonald’s employee with down syndrome retires after 32 years of serving smiles. Soviet official Boris Yeltsin visits a grocery store in Texas shortly before the collapse of the USSRA man with his wife and 13 children in Louisiana, 1938.Winston Churchill, far right, as a prisoner of war of the Boer Republic days before his escape, November 1899Elizabeth Plane (1859-1914), daughter of a Cornish copper miner, settled in northern Queensland, widowed four times before she was 40, mother of three; photographed here in 1886Arrested protesters of the Vietnam war, 1971 Boys with astronaut costumes and spacehoppers, Glasgow, 1970.Maori chief Tomika Te Mutu, between 1860 and 1879 The USS Missouri barely squeezing through the Panama Canal. Six sisters who walk to and from settlement school daily – four miles each way. Family of thirteen live in one room without a window, Hindman, Kentucky, 1903 An ‘Ice Man’, delivering a 25lb block of ice in 1928, Houston, Texas. Nancy Reagan sitting on Mr T’s lap, The White House, December, 1983 Aerial view of Utah Beach on 6 June 1944. Betty White and Lorne Greene, hosting Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in 1965 Lady Diana Falling Asleep During An Official Royal Engagement, 1981. She was actually pregnant with Prince William at the time, but the pregnancy had not yet been announced. The Dean Scream, credited with ending Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, January 19th 2004,In 1969, the Black Panthers launched free breakfast programs across the US, feeding thousands of kids before school. The FBI called it a threat. In some cities, police raided kitchens, smashed food, and urinated on supplies to shut them down.U. S. President John F. Kennedy, after beginning his presidency with a speech that declared “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,” celebrated with his wife Jacqueline at his Inaugural Ball. Photo by Paul Schutzer, 1961.Ballerinas in the cafeteria at the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, Russia, 1961.An extremely unlikely traffic accident occurred in Lysekil, Sweden, the 19th of August 1961. A collision between a car and a submarine! Queen Elizabeth II addresses a vast gathering of more than a quarter of a million in India, 1961.A woman adjusting her stockings by the light of a Goodyear illuminated tire, 1961.The Construction Of The Forth Road Bridge. Scotland, 1961Warship Vasa recovered from the sea floor after 333 years. Stockholm, Sweden on the 24th of April 1961. President John F. Kennedy and Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny in bubble-top limousine, 22nd of May 1962.The tensions during Cuban Missile Crisis were high. So much that U.S. stationed Surface-To-Air missiles MIM-23 Hawk on the beaches in Florida. October 27th, 1962Meeting of the Italian and French drilling parties during the construction of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, 14 August 1962Yuri Gagarin pours himself a mug of beer while visiting the Karlsberg’s brewery in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962.Professional frogman Courtney Brown tows a 55-foot scale model of the Titanic during work on the film “Raise the Titanic!”, 20 June 1980Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Program read the news that Smallpox had been globally eradicated, 1980.Polish border guard and his horse drink from the stream in Bieszczady Mountains while on patrol. Polish Border Guard still uses horses to traverse difficult mountainous or swampy terrain. This photo was used for recruitment purposes. Poland, 1980.Florence Thompson, known as the Migrant Mother from Dorothea Lange’s iconic 1936 photograph, holds up the image during an interview on October 10, 1978, after her identity was revealed.Delegation members from the People’s Republic of China at the San Diego Zoo, California, USA, 1980. “Television arrived to the village” photo by Mark Steinbock, USSR, 1980 Seattle before and after removing the Alaskan Way Viaduct in 2020.A Kurdish peshmerga during the Kurdish uprising against the Iranian government, 1979-1980.With 4 kings, 31 presidents, 6 princes, 22 prime ministers, and 47 ministers of foreign affairs present, some consider Tito’s funeral the largest state funeral in history. May 8th, 1980, Belgrade A father and son on the picket line during the 1981 air traffic controllers strike, which became one of the most important events in U.S. labor history after President Ronald Reagan fired all 11,345 striking workers, dissolved their union, and banned them from federal service for lifeTwo neighbours, an Albanian and a Serb, near Kosovo Polje, 1981Greenpeace tries to stop radioactive waste from being dumped in the ocean, 1982.Falklands War. Steel helmets abandoned by Argentine armed forces who surrendered at Goose Green. May 1982.Front pallbearer Dan Aykroyd pausing with his arms crossed over the coffin of John Belushi following services at West Tisbury Congregational Church on Martha’s Vineyard, March 10th, 1982. Barack and Michelle Obama in their living room with their newborn daughter Malia (1998).A 1928 tommy gun in a violin case.Behind the scenes of Goldeneye, which had the largest amount of miniature work ever in a James Bond movie, 1995.Man standing on a stone elephant at the Ming Imperial Tombs. China, 1910 University of Madras student ties his hair to a nail to prevent sleeping at night while preparing for exams, 1905.Canadian soldiers playing hockey on an ice rink built on the Imjin River during the Korean War. Northern Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, 1952.Lincolns head being cut into mount Rushmore, 1937Photographer Otto Ludwig Bettmann captures the Grand Prix Monza in 1966President Bill Clinton draws a giant zero on a sign as he and Vice President Al Gore unveil the balanced federal budget in the White House, February 2, 1999. Danish troops patrol the Iraqi southern town of Al-Garma, 15 km north of the southern city of Basra, Iraq, 2003.A car that was driven into a motel pool, the driver was arrested “on suspicion of driving while intoxicated”, Costa Mesa, California, March 18, 1984Imperial Japanese soldiers climb the great wall of China, 1937.
