In 1776, the United States of America as we know it declared independence. And from the 18th century to today, the country has had a packed, complicated history, full of events that were inspiring, shocking, and heartbreaking. But reading about the past doesn’t always make it click the way a photograph can.
That’s why we’ve rounded up some curious photos shared on the US History subreddit. From everyday slices of life to major turning points captured on camera, scroll down to check them out. They might make you view America’s history in a new light.
#61 Martin Pbm Mariner Patrol Bomber Is Hosed Down After It Was Hauled Up A Ramp At Naval Air Station - Banana River, Florida - 1943
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#62 1773 - Boston Tea Party
252 years ago, American colonists in Boston carried out the Boston Tea Party, one of the most famous acts of protest leading up to the American Revolution. In defiance of British authority, members of the Sons of Liberty boarded ships in Boston Harbor and dumped large quantities of tea into the water.
The protest was directed against the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies while maintaining Parliament’s right to tax them. Colonists opposed the measure not because tea was expensive, but because it reinforced the principle of taxation without representation.
Disguised as Mohawk Indians, the protesters destroyed 342 chests of tea, worth a significant sum, while carefully avoiding damage to other cargo or ships. The action was organised, symbolic, and deliberately nonviolent toward people, yet it represented a direct challenge to British rule, and inflamed tensions in the years preceding the Revolutionary War.
The protest was directed against the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies while maintaining Parliament’s right to tax them. Colonists opposed the measure not because tea was expensive, but because it reinforced the principle of taxation without representation.
Disguised as Mohawk Indians, the protesters destroyed 342 chests of tea, worth a significant sum, while carefully avoiding damage to other cargo or ships. The action was organised, symbolic, and deliberately nonviolent toward people, yet it represented a direct challenge to British rule, and inflamed tensions in the years preceding the Revolutionary War.
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#63 Found This 1929 Indian Reservation Liquor Prohibition Poster In My Grandfather's (B. 1918) Belongings
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#65 Men Load A Steam Ship With Steel From Carnegie Steel Co. - Pittsburgh, PA (1918)
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#66 I Found An Undocumented American Ghost Town With No History Online
So, I was traveling America on the backroads, trying to find some old buildings/communities that haven't changed since their incorporation, and I found it ! This is Richwoods, Missouri, a town with a industrial past that started in the 1830s. That's about all the history that existed online, so I decided to park and walk around town and talk to locals and hear the stories of this old town.
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6points
#67 At Ford’s Willow Run Plant, B-24 Liberator Production Reached Astonishing Levels By November 1943, A New Bomber Was Rolling Out Every Hour
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#68 Dec. 25, 1868. The Civil War Is Over, But Post-War Tensions Are Still There. In An Attempt To Restore Unity, Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Troops
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#69 San Francisco Earthquake Of 1906 - Area North Of California Street In The Vicinity Of Grant Avenue Showing Telegraph Hill In The Distance. The Church Standing On The Right Is Saint Mary's Church
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#70 Construction Of The U.S. Steel-Mellon Building (525 William Penn Place) - Downtown Pittsburgh, PA (June 1950)
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#71 The White House Wasn’t Always Named As Such. In Fact, It’s Had Many Names Over The Years, Including The “President’s Palace,” “Executive Mansion,” And Simply The “President’s House”
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#72 December 27, 1900 - Carrie Nation's First Public Smashing Of A Bar (Carey Hotel, Wichita, Kansas)
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#75 Soldiers Walk During Armistice Day Celebrations After The First World War - Kalamazoo, MI (C. 1919)
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#77 Swan Creek Mine Common Housing (Michigan’s Last Coal Mine) - Saginaw County, C. 1946
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#78 Detroit Industrial Expressway And Ford River Rouge Plant - Detroit, MI (1940s)
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#79 General George Patton, Despite Being A Self-Proclaimed Devout Christian, Was A Staunch Believer In Reincarnation, And He Believed That He Had Lived Many Lives As Great Warriors
togetherweserved says:
His extensive understanding of historical battles also made the great general a staunch believer in reincarnation, believing he had been a soldier in many previous lives and a quote that is credited to him reads; “So as through a glass and darkly, the age-long strife I see, where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me.”
"Among the many warriors, Patton thought he had been in a former life was a prehistoric mammoth hunter; a Greek hoplite who fought the Persians; a soldier of Alexander the Great who fought the Persians during the siege of Tyre; Hannibal of Carthage whose brutal tactics enforced loyalty among his troops and power over his enemies; a Roman Legionnaire under Julius Caesar who served in Gaul (present-day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine); the Roman Soldier who pierced Jesus’ heart with a spear; an English knight during the Hundred Years War; and a Marshal of France under Napoleon."
His extensive understanding of historical battles also made the great general a staunch believer in reincarnation, believing he had been a soldier in many previous lives and a quote that is credited to him reads; “So as through a glass and darkly, the age-long strife I see, where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me.”
"Among the many warriors, Patton thought he had been in a former life was a prehistoric mammoth hunter; a Greek hoplite who fought the Persians; a soldier of Alexander the Great who fought the Persians during the siege of Tyre; Hannibal of Carthage whose brutal tactics enforced loyalty among his troops and power over his enemies; a Roman Legionnaire under Julius Caesar who served in Gaul (present-day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine); the Roman Soldier who pierced Jesus’ heart with a spear; an English knight during the Hundred Years War; and a Marshal of France under Napoleon."
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