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Entertainment

Indrė Lukošiūtė

110 Moments Nearly Lost To History That Everyone Should See

MOMA

When we think about the past, it’s easy to think of the same familiar photographs—the ones we’ve seen so often that they’re etched into our minds as a kind of shorthand for entire chapters of history. That isn’t to say they’re not impressive. Many of them became part of our collective consciousness because they’re often some combination of visually striking, historically significant, or representative of their time.

But not every photograph becomes part of the history we know best. Some remain tucked away, overlooked, or simply less familiar. And that’s part of what makes accounts like Lost in History so fascinating. By sharing lesser-seen photos from decades gone by, they bring images that could have simply languished out of sight back into the light, often reminding us that there are, in fact, many ways to look at the past.

#1 Rainy Nights In London, 1899

#2 A Vietcong Operating Room In The Vietnam War, 1970

#3 Anne Frank Writing At Her Desk In Her Room In The Merwedeplein Apartment, Amsterdam, 1941

Photography has never just been about pictures. Since its invention in 1839, it’s given us a way to hold onto moments that would otherwise fade into the past, letting us return to them again and again, long after they first happened. Closely connected to memory, evidence, and documentation, photographs, as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) puts it, function “as memory aides, surrogates for direct observation, and even trustworthy duplicates of important documents,” offering “glimpses into lives past, long-ago events, and forgotten places.”

#4 A Little Girl Hands A Posy Of Lilies To A Police Officer On Duty At The Porte Saint-Denis In Paris, Circa 1920

#5 This Rare 1894 Photograph Shows A Young Indigenous Woman Smiling At The Viewer

#6 In 1878, Isabella Bover, A Renowned French Model, Was Carefully Selected To Embody The Spirit Of The Statue Of Liberty

A single image can capture a moment in time, letting us look back at people, places, and events long after they’ve passed. That makes photographs powerful tools for telling stories, chronicling history, and shaping how we understand the world and the people who lived in it. As scholars Karen Cross and Julia Peck write, “Photography, archive and memory are intimately connected.”

#7 A Couple Portrait Photos. 1880s

#8 Street Scene In Guangzhou, China, 1880

#9 Women Marching For The Right To Vote. 1913

This relationship has a lot to do with photography’s “inextricable connection to the real world,” MoMA explains. For a long time, this made it seem like a uniquely reliable way to document people, places, and events, and to record history as it happened. But we now know that photographs aren’t “fixed statements of fact.” They’re far more open to interpretation, shaped not only by what the photographer chose to include in the frame, but also by the context in which the image is later presented and viewed.

#10 A Navajo Man Wearing A Ceremonial Mask And Dress Of Nayenezgani, 1904

#11 Rare Vintage Photograph Of An Onna-Bugeisha, One Of The Female Warriors Of The Upper Social Classes In Feudal Japan

#12 By Yevgeny Khaldei - A Shell Shocked Reindeer Looking On As World War II Planes Drop Bombs

This powerful photo shows a scene of man made destruction that is totally at odds with nature which reduces a once majestic and powerful animal to a daze of confusion

In other words, while photography can aid memory by building a vast store of images, it also “filters and mediates what is preserved,” as Cross and Peck put it. A camera can capture details that might otherwise “evade the eye,” but the photographic record can never be the full picture. What survives is shaped by what was photographed, what was preserved, and what was subsequently brought to our attention.

#13 LEGO Was Patented In 1958. The Design Of Its Bricks Has Not Changed Since

#14 A Lady With Her Horse On A Snowy Day In 1899

#15 A High Stakes Card Game In China, Around 1902

And that raises questions about the photographic archive itself. It may preserve a wealth of information, but it can never be a completely neutral record of everything that happened since someone always decides what gets kept and what gets left out. As Cross and Peck explain, “Photography and its archives are structured by remembrance and forgetting, in which certain futures are promised and others excluded.” From the second half of the 20th century onward, MoMA notes, new perspectives increasingly challenged the idea of both the photograph and the photographic archive as objective, unbiased records of the past.

#16 This Photo From 1902 Shows French Knife Grinders. They Would Work On Their Stomachs In Order To Save Their Backs From Being Hunched All Day

#17 Athens – Acropolis

#18 African American Man Drinking At “White Only” Fountain, Circa 1956

That doesn’t mean the familiar photographs we associate with history are somehow unimportant or misleading. They’re simply only part of the picture. Looking beyond the images we already know can reveal other perspectives, details, and stories—and give us a fuller sense of the people, places, and events that shaped the past.

#19 Women’s Fashion Styles Of 1922

#20 Queen Victoria With The Russian Tsar Nicholas II. To The Left Sits Tsarina Alexandra With Her Little Daughter Grand Duchess Olga. Balmoral Castle. 1896

#21 Selknam Natives (Native From Chile) En Route To Europe For Being Exhibited As Animals In Human Zoos, 1899

And this is where pages like Lost in History become particularly interesting. By bringing together photographs that may be less familiar to many of us, the account gives these images another chance to be seen, considered, and perhaps remembered in ways they otherwise might not have been. Some are fascinating, some are haunting, and some are strangely ordinary. Not every one necessarily tells a forgotten story or reveals some hidden piece of history, but together, they widen the frame.

#22 Transportation Of The Base For The Drilling Rig. UK, 1980s

#23 Earliest Known Photograph Of The Taj Mahal, 1850s

#24 Gentleman Seeking Employment In The 1930's

#25 A Tattoo Artist, 1920s

#26 19th Century Egypt Women

#27 Mirror Portrait Was Taken 100 Years Ago In Japan

#28 Che Guevara, At The Battle Of Santa Clara, 1958

#29 In 1199, Pope Innocent III Approved The Uniform Of The Knights Of The Teutonic Order - A White Tunic And A White Cloak With A Black Cross

#30 A Woman Is Ticketed For Wearing A Bikini, 1957

#31 Colorized Photo Of Ned Parfett, Best Known As The “Titanic Paperboy” April 16, 1912

#32 Ancient City Of Sigiriya (Lion Rock) Is An Ancient Rock Fortress Located In The Northern Matale District Near The Town Of Dambulla In The Central Province, Sri Lanka, 477 – 495 Ad

#33 Empire State Building, 1941, A Bit Lonely At That Time, Photo By Andreas Feininger

#34 Temple Of Olympian Zeus In Athens. 1930

#35 Terracotta Army In Xi’an, China

#36 Evelyn Nesbit, The First American Supermodel, 1902

#37 1888 Construction Of Neuschwanstein Castle. It Appeared In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – The Film Premiered In 1968

#38 Axe (Detail) From The Tomb Of Ahhotep, Thebes. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, 16th Century Bce. Gold And Copper With Semiprecious Stones

#39 Abu Simbel, Egypt

#40 Babies Left To Sleep Outside, Enforcing Immune Sistem, Moscow 1958

#41 Hanoi During The Air Raid. Vietnam, 1967. Photo By Lee Lockwood

#42 A Small Child Who Is Part Of Indonesian Guerilla Troop Stand Bravely After Captured By The Dutch. Circa 1947

#43 An 11-Year Old Coal Miner Named Otha Porter Martin In 1908

Otha worked at the Turkey Knob Mine in West Virginia. His job was as a ‘tipple boy’ and he loaded coal to be transported. It's evident just how small Otha was when next to the grown men he worked alongside. Photos by Lewis Hine

#44 The Hell Of Serra Pelada Mines, A Large Gold Mine In Brazil, Circa 1986. Photograph By Sebastião Salgado

#45 Egypt, Aswan, Temple Of Isis, Philae Island, Between 1900-1920

#46 Two Soldiers Pay Their Respects At A British First World War Cemetery, 5 November 1939. France

#47 Bertha Boronda - 5 Years In Prison For Cutting Off Her Husband's Manhood For Adultery, USA, 1907

#48 A Small Dog Does Its Best To Look Brave In Front Of Four Great Danes At The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show At Madison Square Garden In 1937

#49 "Business As Usual" Undaunted By A Night Of German Air Raids In Which His Store Front Was Blasted, A Shopkeeper Opens Up The Morning After For “Business As Usual” In London

#50 The Covenanter’s Tomb, Greyfriars Churchyard, 1846 David Octavius Hill And Robert Adamson

#51 A 4500 Year Old Egyptian Beaded Dress (2323-2150bc)

#52 Camouflaged Road In Finland During Ww2. The Trees Are Hung Up With Rope So Enemy Watch Towers Don't See The Road. June 27, 1941

#53 A Woman Posts A Letter In A Postbox Amongst Destroyed Buildings And Rubble Caused By German Air Raids During World War II. Photograph Taken In London, United Kingdom In 1940 By Cecil Beaton

#54 A French Man Reacts To Trying Coca-Cola For The First Time (1950's)

#55 Jewish Woman Washing Laundry In Polotzk, Russia, Circa 1900

#56 Several Civilians Inside A Bombed Out Railroad Station In Valenciennes, France, 1915

#57 Lucky British Soldier Shows Off His Damaged Helmet, 1917

#58 Young Woman From Guanajuato, Mexico Playing A Mandolina Conchera, A Guitar-Like Instrument Traditionally Made From The Shell Of An Armadillo Circa 1895

#59 Italian Children In Naples, 1942

#60 Miss Turkey, 1936

#61 Sigourney Weaver On The Set Of Alien

#62 Boy Sitting On The Tomb For Dionysios Of Kollytos, Kerameikos Cemetery, Athens - 1895. Photo: Wilhelm Von Plüschow

#63 Selknam Initiation Ceremony, 1923

The Selknam (also known as the Ona) were an indigenous people in southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be encountered by ethnic Europeans or Westerners in the late 19th century. The last ethnic Selknam passed in the mid 20th century.

#64 A Plane Flies Over Christ The Redeemer Statue Under Construction In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, C. 1930, Photo By Sydney Henry Holland

#65 Children Crossing The River On Their Way To School, Italy, 1959. Photo By Tino Petrelli

#66 Leather Bottle In The Shape Of A Whale. Netherlands, CA. 1675-1700

#67 In Front Of The Panathenaic Stadium. Athens. 1929

#68 Rain In The Face, A Sioux Chief From Standing Rock, North Dakota, Circa 1910. He Fought Sitting Bull At The Little Bighorn In 1876. Photo By Frank Bennett Fiske

#69 An Elder Irish Woman, Using A Spinning Wheel For Thread Or Yarn, In Ireland, The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland, C. 1890 - 1900

#70 View From The Window At Le Gras (First Photograph Ever Taken) Between 1826 And 1827

#71 A Nurse With A Sick Child During Smallpox Epidemic, Wroclaw, Poland, 1963. Photo By Stanisław Jakubowski

#72 Frank Lentini, Owner Of 3 Legs, 16 Toes, And 2 Functioning Sets Of Genitals (1884-1966)

#73 Marie Of Edinburgh, Queen Of Romania, With Her Dog. 1900's

#74 An Old Man And An Old Woman. Mountain Shoria. Altai, 1913

#75 Nancy Debenham Giving A Group Of Children A Ride On Her Motorcycle, 1923

#76 The Early Years Of Nintendo, 1895. The Company Was Still Printing Hand-Crafted Playing Cards Only

#77 Lycian Rock-Cut Tombs (CA 400 Bc) Above Dalyan River, Kaunos, Turkey

#78 Sarcophagus From Tombs Of Yuya And Thuya, Discovered In 1905

#79 Hopi Girls From The Village Of Shonguapavi. Photo By Charles C. Pierce C. 1900

#80 Tutankhamun's Sandals

#81 The Cast Of Star Wars Out Of Costume In C. 1977

From left to right: Harrison Ford (Han Solo), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

#82 Kaiser Wilhelm II Of The German Empire Photographed Smoking In Silesia In 1913. 📷 Oscar Tellgmann

#83 September 3, 1940. Color Photograph Of British Children Taking Cover In A Trench, Watching Aerial Combat During The Battle Of Britain

#84 Geronimo & His Warriors. Only Known Photo Of Indian Combatants Still In Field Who Had Not Yet Surrendered To US - 1886

#85 Lunch At A Detroit Drugstore 1955. Photo By Robert Frank

#86 Us Air Transport Command C-47 Skytrain Aircraft Flying Over The Giza Necropolis In Egypt 1943

#87 White Wolf, Chief John Smith, Of The Chippewa People Lived In Cass Lake, Minnesota

Some believe that he was 137 years old at the time of his passing on February 6th, 1922. However White Wolf’s true age at is often disputed. There was no documentation for the date of his birth, and others believe he was closer to the age of 100