We have been offering you for some time to discover rare historical photographsin order to dive back into the past, and learn about specific elements that have escaped us, or that we had simply forgotten. The 31 photographs present in this article are so many stories to tell you, and each one makes us experience a very particular emotion.
Warning: some photographs contain images that may offend everyone’s sensibilities, images belonging to the Second World War and the Cold War in particular. If you are of a sensitive nature, we advise you not to continue reading.
1) A group of men posing in front of the Lynch slave market, St. Louis, Missouri (1852)
2) A mother shows a picture of her son to a returning POW (Vienna, 1947)
Comment: photograph of Ernst Haas.
3) Fighting dog wounded in action on the Orote Peninsula in the Second Battle of Guam (1944)
Comment: The Second Battle of Guam is a battle of the Pacific War during World War II that took place on the island of Guam, from July 21 to August 10, 1944. The American army challenges the Japanese forces there. The conquest of Guam and the Mariana Islands allowed the establishment of key bases for the continuation of the offensive in the Pacific and Japan within reach of the American air force.
As it concerns fighting dogs, Dobermann owners in particular were encouraged to surrender their dog to the US military as a patriotic effort at this time. The Marines thus used them as real dogs of war. Twenty-five specimens died in the Second Battle of Guam.
4) a teenager smokes in baltimore (1938)
Comment: colorized photograph.
5) The Eiffel Tower during the Nazi occupation (1940)
6) Columns of the Hoover Dam being filled with concrete, February 1934 (upstream view from Nevada shore)
Comment: the hoover dam, located on the Colorado River in the United States, was built between 1931 and 1936. Its construction was the result with a massive effort involving thousands of workers in difficult conditions, which caused the death of 112 of them. Its construction required nearly 7 million tons of concrete.
7) Jewish prisoners after being released from a death train (1945)
8) the last public execution in France (June 17, 1939)
Comment: June 17, 1939, the serial killer Eugene Weidmann (six victims), nicknamed the “velvet-eyed killer” is performed at Versailles. This is the last death row inmate executed in public square in France, and we can see the crowd who come to watch the beheading by guillotine. The rest of the crowd was further contained.
9) albert einstein at long island (1939)
Comment: colorized photograph.
10) Nikola Tesla sitting in his laboratory with his transformer (1891)
Comment: the Tesla coil or “Tesla transformer” is an electrical machine operating under high frequency alternating current and allowing the production of very high voltages. It bears the name of its inventor Nikola Tesla who developed it around 1891. The apparatus consists of two or three circuits of coils coupled and tuned by resonance. It is relatively easy today to make a Tesla coil to produce artificial lightning.
11) The Statue of Liberty under construction in Paris (1884)
12) Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa returned to the Louvre after World War II
Comment: when the Second World War was declared, France (and in particular its major national museums) list all the works that must at all costs be protected from looters and bombardments. The Mona Lisa therefore leaves for a 70 month journey, in a crate. She flees the Germans, between Chambord and Montal in particular, located in the Lot. The trip seemed to work for him because she always smiles !
13) Louis Armstrong trains in his dressing room (1946)
Comment: colorized photo by Dana Keller.
14) The remains of astronaut Vladimir Komarov (1967)
Remark : Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov is a Soviet cosmonaut who was part of the very first group of Soviet cosmonauts, selected in March 1960. After a first flight in 1964, as commander of the Voskhod 1 missionthe latter came to pilot the very first Soyuz spacecraft (intended to place cosmonauts in orbit), in 1967. But, following a whole series of malfunctions, he did not come back alive, thus becoming the very first victim during a space flight.
15) Lee Harvey Oswald is taken away for questioning about the murder of John F. Kennedy (1963)
Comment: colorized photograph.
16) photo finish of the sixth and last stage of the first tour of france (1903)
Comment: the victory scene at the finish of the first Tour de France. Middle right: the winner, Maurice Garinto his left: most likely Leon Georget.
17) samurai training with bows (1860)
Comment: colorized photograph.
18) Monet in his garden (1922)
Comment: the famous French impressionist painter, Claude Monetstanding on a bridge with a visitor in his garden in Givernyin France, in 1922.
19) Updated map of Europe (1918)
Commentary: People in Philadelphia, USA are watching a new map of Europe following the changes resulting from the First World War, in 1918.
20) Cave in an Iceberg (1911)
Comment: the geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor and the meteorologist Charles Wright were photographed on January 5, 1911 at the entrance to a cave in the side of an iceberg with the ship Terra Nova in the background. This expedition was part of the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scottwhich lasted from 1910 to 1913.
21) Hindenburg airship crash (1937)
Comment: colorized photograph. nicknamed the “Titanic of the Air” (curious historical coincidence), the Hindenburg flew over the world between 1936 and 1937. Measuring 245 meters long and 41.2 meters in diameter, it is the largest airship ever built. In May 1937, the latter flies over the Atlantic for the 37th time, filled with hydrogen. On the ground, the crew begins to pull the airship towards the mooring tower, despite stormy weather and … a gas leak. The airship suddenly caught fire, and Sam Sherphotographer present on the scene, made this shot which will go down in history.
22) Testing a bulletproof vest (1923)
Comment: tis from a bulletproof vest under the gaze of interested spectators in Washington, DC, September 13, 1923.
23) Neil Armstrong after walking on the moon (1969)
Comment: Neil Armstrong photographed by Buzz Aldrin shortly after performing the first-ever moon walk July 20, 1969.
24) The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (1935)
Comment: colorized photograph by Dana Keller.
25) Harriet Tubman, age 89, photographed seated in a chair in her home in Auburn, New York (1911)
Remark : Harriet Tubmanis an American activist for the abolition of slavery of African-Americans, then activist against racism and feminist. The latter was born in the 1820s, and when she was five or six years old, she was leased to a woman named “Miss Susan” where she was the victim of ill-treatment on a daily basis.
His mission was watch over a baby while he sleepsbut when he woke up crying, she was whipped, which happened regularly several times a day. Another day threatened for stealing a sugar cube, Tubman hid in a neighbor’s pigsty for five days, fighting animals for scraps of food. Starving, she had to return to Miss Susan’s where she was severely beaten. She bore the scars of that abuse for the rest of her life..
26) train accident at montparnasse station (22 october 1895)
Remark : the express train n°56 of October 22, 1895departing from Granville bound for Gare Montparnasse in Paris (which was called, at the time, “gare de l’Ouest”), had an impressive accident while crossing the facade of the Parisian station exactly four hours later. the afternoon. The main mechanic Pellerin and the driver Garnier had decided by mutual agreement, a few minutes earlier, to work twice as hard to make up for the ten-minute delay taken by the train during its journey. A big mistake. The train was traveling at too high a speed and could not be stopped at the station: the locomotive then broke the stopper and smashed through the window of the station as well as a stone balustrade to come and end its run on Rennes Square.
The accident claimed a single victim, namely a newsagent running a kiosk on the street, struck by a block of stone torn from the front of the station. All the wagons containing the passengers miraculously remained at the level of the station, here’s why no other injuries were to be deplored.
27) small picnic between women of the same family (1941)
Comment: colorized photograph by Dana Keller.
28) The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855)
Comment: this photograph, taken on April 23, 1855 by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War, is very interesting, since it reminds us that this war was the first to be documented with photographs. When Roger Fenton took part in reporting on the Crimean War (between 1853 and 1856), he took 360 shots, including this one, at the request of Queen Victoria. Here we see a ravine strewn with cannonballs which was named “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” by the soldiers of the British army after having were defeated by the Russiansseveral consecutive times, at this precise location.
29) Emmeline Pankhurst arrested outside Buckingham Palace (1914)
Remark : Emmeline Pankhurst is a British feminist politician. She is particularly known for organizing the British suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote in Britain. She was arrested in this photograph while attempting to present a petition to King George V of the United Kingdom, May 21, 1914.
30) Japanese Samurai in Egypt (1864)
Comment: here is a group of Japanese samurai photographed in front of the Sphinx of Gizain Egypt,…
