22 Pics That Feel Like They're From a Historical Time Capsule

Daniel Bonfiglio Published 03/21/2024 in ftw

Have you ever felt the urge to put a message in a bottle and send it out into the ocean? What would it say?

It is human nature to think about the past, and wonder about the future. We'd all love to experience a few days in ancient times or even a few decades ago, and I for one desperately want a sneak peek into what the next few hundred years will look like for the human race. Time capsules are the closest we can come to reaching different generations; delivering messages untouched by the history in between. The r/HistoricalCapsule subreddit is a place for people to share historical photos that feel like they were just opened from a time capsule.

One striking image shows a man in a canoe paddling down the Nile River in Egypt, with the great pyramids behind him. The image is from 1927, and the area looks peaceful and underdeveloped. The same can certainly not be said for what is one of the most popular modern tourist destinations in the world today. But the great pyramids, which have stood unmoving for the majority of recorded human history, have looked down upon it all; their own version of a time capsule.

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1.
The Microsoft staff, 1978.
2.
Flight Attendants from New Zealand in the 1960s.
3.
This is what a trip to McDonald’s looked like in 1969.
4.
5.
6.
Last four couples in a dance marathon, Chicago, circa 1930.
7.
A 1960's ‘Conversation Pit.’
8.
American physicist Harold Agnew holding the core of the atomic bomb that was used in Nagasaki, 1945.
9.
The Nile by the Giza Pyramids, Egypt, 1927.
10.
A white child touches the shield of a black state trooper at a KKK rally in Gainesville, GA, 1992.
11.
Two little kids dancing on the streets of New York City, 1940.
12.
Actress Jayne Mansfield with her husband Mickey Hargitay and their daughter Mariska, 1964.
13.
Guardsman fainted during a ceremony, but other guards kept their attention. London, 1966.
14.
Rob Lowe, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Robert Downey Jr. at the Governors Ball after the 1988 Academy Awards.
15.
Mother hides her face in shame after putting her children up for sale, Chicago, 1948.
16.
Northumbrian miner sits down to eat his evening meal, 1937.
17.
In 1973, Marlon Brando rejected his Oscar for The Godfather to allow Sacheen Littlefeather to protest Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans.
18.
Kenny Baker, R2D2, eating a sandwich on the set of Star Wars.
19.
While cleaning up from the World Trade Centers falling, crews found a shipwreck 7ft below the foundation that dated back to 1773.
20.
Mickey the shoeshine boy, New York, 1947. Photograph by Stanley Kubrick.
21.
An acoustic listening device used by the Dutch army for hearing enemy airplanes, between World War I and II.
22.
The first Royce car in Cooke Street 1904.

1.
The Microsoft staff, 1978.
2.
Flight Attendants from New Zealand in the 1960s.
3.
This is what a trip to McDonald’s looked like in 1969.
4.
5.
6.
Last four couples in a dance marathon, Chicago, circa 1930.
7.
A 1960's ‘Conversation Pit.’
8.
American physicist Harold Agnew holding the core of the atomic bomb that was used in Nagasaki, 1945.
9.
The Nile by the Giza Pyramids, Egypt, 1927.
10.
A white child touches the shield of a black state trooper at a KKK rally in Gainesville, GA, 1992.
11.
Two little kids dancing on the streets of New York City, 1940.
12.
Actress Jayne Mansfield with her husband Mickey Hargitay and their daughter Mariska, 1964.
13.
Guardsman fainted during a ceremony, but other guards kept their attention. London, 1966.
14.
Rob Lowe, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Robert Downey Jr. at the Governors Ball after the 1988 Academy Awards.
15.
Mother hides her face in shame after putting her children up for sale, Chicago, 1948.
16.
Northumbrian miner sits down to eat his evening meal, 1937.
17.
In 1973, Marlon Brando rejected his Oscar for The Godfather to allow Sacheen Littlefeather to protest Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans.
18.
Kenny Baker, R2D2, eating a sandwich on the set of Star Wars.
19.
While cleaning up from the World Trade Centers falling, crews found a shipwreck 7ft below the foundation that dated back to 1773.
20.
Mickey the shoeshine boy, New York, 1947. Photograph by Stanley Kubrick.
21.
An acoustic listening device used by the Dutch army for hearing enemy airplanes, between World War I and II.
22.
The first Royce car in Cooke Street 1904.