Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
These 44 historical photos are a strange journey through time, showcasing moments that are so bizarre, they’ll make you question everything you thought you knew about history.
On a lighter note, here’s the book you see during the opening credits of Snow White. Yes, it’s a real book, and yes, it’s still around!
Did you know George Washington was a redhead? Here’s a lock of his hair.
Computers were even more bulky in the 1970s.
Old ads are always super fascinating to me — like this 1942 ad encouraging carpooling.
Ever wonder how old playing cards are? Here’s the oldest surviving complete set — from the 1400s
Here’s what a purple heart from WWII looks like.
This has got to be one of the weirdest cereal box prizes of all time – it’s a Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb ring from the ’40s that is actually radioactive.
It was also fairly common for uranium glass to be used in the 1800s and early 1900s, especially when it came to perfume bottles. The glass actually glows under a UV light.
I bet when you think of Tokyo, you imagine crowded streets of neon signs flanked by huge skyscrapers — which is why it’s wild to see this photo of Tokyo featuring the famous Tokyo Tower surrounded by one and two-level houses.
Did you know the US made a special edition of the dollar coin from 1979-1981? The other side featured Susan B. Anthony — making it the first US coin to feature a real historical woman.
This newspaper from 1945 is a fair bit happier.
In an even lighter newspaper snapshot, it’s fun to look back and see the movie ads from this 1980 paper.
Being a pharmacist sure has changed a lot — here’s a look at a bunch of bottles from a pharmacist from the ’50s.
What kind of stuff might a pharmacist or doctor give you in the early 1900s? Well, cocaine, for starters.
Another treatment for coughs was heroin. Yep, HEROIN
NYC subway cars looked superrrr different in the ’80s.
This is what a document proving a formerly enslaved person was free looked like before the Civil War.
This list of job requirements for a woman are genuinely pretty sad to look back on now.
This German copy of Faust also makes me sad. It was found in the trenches in 1918, and its owner likely died.
It’s super weird to see telegrams, considering all the ways we have to communicate quickly and efficiently from almost anywhere now. This notice of a woman’s death feels especially impersonal.
I’m actually kind of shocked we never saw this letter from Gandhi to Hitler in history class.
I’m not as shocked that we never learned about this CIA-issued toolkit for spies that can be hidden in your butt in case of capture.
These hourly pay rates for railroad workers in the US in 1923 are…sad to see now. Though, to be fair, $1.22 is around $23/hour today.
TIL in London in the ’40s, they would do gas exercises for civilians to prepare for gas attacks from Germany.
I also learned that some planes had WICKER seats back in the day??? Oh, and check out the first example of an in-flight film.
One more thing I learned today? Due to high inflation during the Civil War, people began hoarding their coins, leading to a huge shortage. Businesses began issuing tokens made of copper instead, which were used by customers in place of real money.
The contents of the wallet of a man killed in WWII are a fascinating yet heartbreaking snapshot of life back then
Here’s a drawing from a Vietnamese prisoner of war from 1969 that also makes me sad.
This lighter from a soldier in Vietnam is also super sad to me.
As is this letter a soldier in Vietnam sent home on his birthday.
On a lighter note, this letter from John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe made me laugh — though it’s unconfirmed if it’s real (it was found in Monroe’s possessions, though!).
This photo of kids engaging in remote learning — over the radio — from 1937 (due to the polio epidemic) makes me feel weirdly connected to the past.
As a huge LOTR fan, I’m super jealous of this fan who wrote to Tolkien in 1959 and actually got a letter back.
This letter from then–President Bill Clinton to a 10-year-old who wrote him is less cool but still interesting.
This photo from Afghanistan of female medical students — and a female professor — is very, very sad to see now.
This passage from an 1800s book that offers a treatment for masturbation — including cutting your hair short and sleeping on a hard bed and pillow with ice on your neck — is kind of disturbing.
Seeing anything that still exists from hundreds of years ago also makes me feel super connected to the past — like this graffiti stating the date (the day of the battle of Bunker Hill) in this old house in Massachusetts.
Similarly, check out this cannonball still stuck in a wall from the Revolutionary War!
Credits: www.buzzfeed.com