/r/TheWayWeWere
What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past.
About TheWayWeWere
What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past. This subreddit is focused on content at least 40 years old.
Please treat the comment section with kindness. Trolling, copypasta and unrelated arguments are against the rules of decorum.
Filter by decade:
Submission guidelines:
Content should be 40 years or older. Please put the approximate location and year in your title.
Especially appreciated are photos that show what people did and experienced, but posed photos are fine too.
If the source of your content is not given by your link, or if you have more information that would be helpful for people who want to learn more, please include it in a comment.
You do not need to put the dimensions of the image in the title of your post, e.g. [640 x 480].
Please do not submit or upvote content about historically notable people (politicians, celebrities, etc.) and events. Please post it to another subreddit.
Reposts are allowed as long as it has not been submitted within the last 3 months AND it does not already appear in the top 50 posts this year. This allows people new to the subreddit to get a chance to see quality previously-submitted content.
Find images to post by viewing our Resources Page. Please suggest additional resources by messaging the mods.
Related subreddits
For video, see /r/TheWayWeWereOnVideo
OldPhotos multireddit - contains 25 old photos subreddits, including many of the following:
Photos of major historical events and historically notable people: /r/HistoryPorn
Colorized photos (historically notable and otherwise): /r/ColorizedHistory and /r/Colorization
Early photography, with a focus on early camera technology: /r/earlyphotography
The suave and debonair ladies and gents of yesteryear: /r/oldschoolcool, /r/retroparents and /r/OldSchoolCelebs. For the more sultry side: /r/vgb (may be nsfw)
Modern photos overlaying historical photos: /r/OldPhotosInRealLife
The stranger side of life: /r/OldSchoolRidiculous
Black History: /r/BlackHistoryPhotos
Extant buildings during construction: /r/HalfbuiltHistory. Buildings lost to history: /r/Lost_Architecture
Time-specific pictures: /r/VictorianEra, /r/1920s, /r/1950s, /r/1960s, /r/1970s
Vintage advertising: /r/vintageads
Newsreel videos: /r/NewsReels
Classic and modern pinup art and photos: /r/pinup
Our more-recent past: /r/vintage and /r/vintageads
Past concepts of the future: /r/HowWeThoughtWeWouldBe and /r/VintageSciFi/
Old time radio programs: /r/OTR
/r/TheWayWeWere
1,430,372 Subscribers
High School basketball state champs, 1907
18:44 UTC
My grandmother and Schatzi the cat, 1957
I love this picture, it’s got all those midcentury vibes.
18:36 UTC
The city of Kristiansand, Norway on the 8 of July 1892. After the city fire that burned down 350 houses.
18:18 UTC
Carolinian/Refaluwasch family, Northern Mariana Islands, circa 1915
16:48 UTC
My Grandad with me and my cousin on the beach in Porthtowan, Cornwall. 1961.
16:17 UTC
When you finished your finals and have three weeks until college graduation! 1981 Knoxville, TN
13:46 UTC
Group of men in Volendam, Netherlands, 19 May 1953
11:47 UTC
April 26, 1937: 'Human Bat' Falls to Death When 'Chutes Fail to Open (r/Minnesota_Archived)
09:42 UTC
Harlem, 1970s.
08:22 UTC
My Uncles. Some time in the 80s
08:14 UTC
"Villa del Mar" Veracruz, Mexico, Circa 1920s. Plane offers the swimmers flights at 5 pesos peer person (around 2.5 dollars at the time). A small fortune to be sure.
06:42 UTC
Somewhere in Mexico. Electric Train (looks brand new) pulling 5 cars behind with its conductor in the window. There is a lone man watching it pass. The machine has the number 1002. Circa 1920s.
05:36 UTC
Man lifting weights in front of an audience. Mongolia, 1956
04:41 UTC
My mom and my grandma circa 1952
03:20 UTC
Flight deck crews of carrier USS Enterprise (CV 6) rest en route to Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942.
23:31 UTC
From a French book of tapestry designs published around 1500.
I don’t know why he’s showing a dog and a flying man his twig and berries. There was no context. The book is on Archive.org
23:30 UTC
A New York Central Mercury train in front of Cleveland’s Union Station, 1936
22:36 UTC
Inuit man, Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, circa 1905
22:23 UTC
My sister singing for my aunts, my mom (she's the one with her hands on her knee) and grandma in Kearny, NJ, 1964. Tough crowd!
22:18 UTC
My great uncle’s amateur football team, 1904
21:15 UTC
At the Strawberry Festival in Lebanon, Oregon in 1926, an 11-month-old baby named Arlene poses in a stroller decorated with her grandmother’s roses.
20:05 UTC
Julia Ann Jefferson on the day of her wedding to Robert Hamilton Espy, August 7, 1870.
19:49 UTC
My aunt, during the 70's in Bucharest, Romania
She would have been 70 next year. She died today as a result of a nosocomial infection and I can't wrap my head around it.
19:28 UTC
Disco Sally, 78 year old Studio 54 regular, 1978
19:21 UTC
My dad and 2 of his brothers, 1960
On their family ranch in South Dakota. My dad (up front) would’ve been 4 at the time, and his brothers younger.
18:20 UTC
Mid 1970s me - deep in the martial arts craze
17:47 UTC
A drawing of the third largest city in Norway, Trondheim in 1800. The city was called Nidaros in 1800.
16:38 UTC