50 Historical Pictures That Might Teach You Something New About Our World

To gain more insight into how Historic Pix began in the first place, we reached out to the page's creator, Peter Cors. "I’m an entrepreneur at heart," Peter told Bored Panda. "I started the account because I wanted to get into influencer marketing, so I chose a few different topics to start several accounts, including the topic of history, that turned into Historic Pix."

"For this account in particular, I had just discovered Earth Pix on Instagram," Peter explained. "I fell in love with that account, and decided I wanted to grow an account of the same quality and size, focused on history."

"I also just love diving into history to learn from past mistakes and gain insight from past experiences and events," Peter shared. "I’ve found that running this account has helped me find understanding and empathy for other people’s situations and experiences. It’s been a wonderful journey so far and can’t wait to see where things go from here."

We also asked Peter why he thinks sharing historic photographs is important today. "Especially in this day and age, it is a good reminder that, while history isn’t always pretty, it’s okay to talk about it and enter in respectful discourse," he told Bored Panda. "I try to comment to, and talk with, as many followers as possible to share opinions and debate. It feels really good to have healthy and respectful discussions with strangers. It reminds me that this is what social media is all about. It makes me very happy to talk with others about a shared hobby/interest."

We also asked Peter how he decides what to feature on the account, and he told us that it mainly comes down to "wow factor". "There’s so much history out there, 99% of the time without much of a backstory or even without photographer credit," he explained. "A picture has to be impactful for me to share it. I want people to feel something when they see a piece of history. Especially for myself, seeing a memorable picture from the past helps me put life into context and appreciate the little things a bit more. I’ve been posting 1 post every day for over 2 years almost, and it still brings me lots of joy."

We also were curious what Peter has learned from running Historic Pix. "I’ve learned lots about influencing," he says. "One person having access to millions of people by the click of a button is very impactful. There’s a certain level of responsibility that comes with running an increasingly bigger account."

"I’ve also learned lots about society as a whole," Peter shared. "Most people who comment and interact with my account are genuinely good and kind-hearted people. The highlight of my day is when I get to talk to them through the comment section about elements of a shared photo."

"I also often share with people when they ask me about my account that it took me posting every day for over 2 years before I started gaining big amounts of followers daily," Peter added. "The lesson I’ve learned from this experience is that if you don’t give up on your goal, you won’t fail at achieving it, and my goal is to become the biggest history account on Instagram, just like Earth Pix is the biggest travel page on Instagram."

Peter also told Bored Panda that if anyone has questions about Historic Pix, you can feel free to reach out to him via his personal Instagram at @Petercors. And don't forget to give Historic Pix a follow right here.

Historic Pix is famous for going “back to the past through exploring beautiful and forgotten historical pictures”, as their Instagram bio states. The account has shared over 670 photos and has amassed over 84k followers. It features a wide variety of photos, including black and white images, colorized pics, photos of famous figures and world leaders, and photographs of everyday people just living their lives decades ago. While getting on Instagram to keep up with our friends and share our best selfies is always fun, it’s great to add a bit of education into our feeds as well. Following accounts like Historic Pix is the perfect way to do that.

With every image, there is a brief explanation of what is happening in the photo, where and when it was taken, and sometimes even a note about how popular the image has become since the event took place. For example, one photo featuring Marcy Borders as she left the World Trade Center covered in dust after the attacks on September 11, 2001, has become an iconic photo showing the horror that took place on that dark day. The fear in her eyes, combined with the dust that covers her and the room, is haunting

Photography was invented in 1839, and since then it has become an integral part of society. Newspapers and magazines were much less impactful before they were filled with photos, and today, we snap pictures of anything and everything. We can perfectly recall how we looked 10 years ago, the most fantastic meal we ate on our vacation to Hawaii for our honeymoon and what our university looked like thanks to the accessibility of cameras. And according to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, or MoMA, keeping photos from the past tells us so much about our world.

“Photographs can provide glimpses into lives past, long-ago events, and forgotten places,” MoMA explains on their site. “They can help shape our understanding of culture, history, and the identity of the people who appear in them. Photography has been utilized in these ways, and perceived as a tool of accurate and objective documentation, because of its inextricable connection to the real world.”

Seeing a powerful photograph can instantly transport you to a different place or time. MoMA notes how powerful photographs can be in chronicling important moments in history and telling the stories of these events. “Their context and presentation can greatly influence the way we understand everything from historical narratives to current cultural issues and situations,” they explain. “In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, photographers, scientists, and social historians gathered together photographic images into archives cataloging people, places, and natural phenomena.”

But by the second half of the twentieth century, people began to have new ideas about how objective the photograph itself actually is. “Many contemporary artists have taken on photographs and photographic archives as the subject of their own work, re-examining and re-interpreting the histories they convey through methods ranging from appropriation to digital manipulation of existing images,” MoMA notes. This has allowed them to find biases, challenge what has long been accepted as historical fact and create new stories.

Future generations will have absolutely no problems finding ample examples of exactly what our current world looked liked, but since technology like smartphones and the internet are still relatively new, it is fascinating to look back on 100, or even 50, years ago. Most of the people in these photos could have never imagined that we would be seeing them on these newfangled devices called “computers” or “cell phones”. To many of them, it was probably amazing to have a photo taken of themselves in the first place. But by the early 2000s, camera phones were becoming more and more common, and after the first iPhone was released in 2007, the smartphone era had officially begun. Having a camera in the palm of your hand suddenly became the norm. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love my smartphone as much as the next person, but I’m also glad we get to go back and view some of these photos that look like they are from a completely different world. Maybe 100 years from now, people will look back on our iPhone photos and laugh about how simple our technology seems to them. It’s hard to imagine that photography can progress much more in the future, as it has already advanced so rapidly over the past 200 years. But Christopher Bryan-Smith, a writer for Expert Photography, made a few predictions about the future of photography that you might find intriguing. First, he mentions that immersive photography may become increasingly popular. Christopher explains that 3D camera technology is improving all the time, and eventually, we will likely all have access to creating our own 360 or VR photos and videos.