Interesting Historical Finds (22 pics)

1

This underground bomb shelter from the Cold War era is super creepy to see now.

2

Did you know some flights used to hand out cigarettes with your in-flight meal? This pack is from the '50s.

3

These 1930s NYC apartment listings for $4 a week and up made me sad. That's about $74 a week today, accounting for inflation, BTW. Even $25 a week is under $500 a month. For context, I currently live in Manhattan with a roommate, and my rent is about $2k...just for my room, not the whole apartment. Electricity and heat are not included.

4

This teacher's contract from 1923, which forbids teachers from getting married or even "keeping company with men," is honestly sad to look at. And what do they have against ice cream parlors???

5

TIL about the "scold's bridle," a torture device used on women who gossiped or nagged. Their use began in the 1500s and went on until the 1800s.

6

"Sticking with the creepy theme, this is what firefighters' masks used to look like."

7

"I'm obsessed with this photo of high school women from 1942 who showed up to school in pants to protest after a classmate was suspended for wearing pants."

8

"This old report card from 1926 gives a glimpse into what it was like to be a student back then. Check out the "bookkeeping" and "homemaking" classes."

9

"This old ad advertising beer to children did notttt age well."

10

"I didn't even know they had sex toys in 1933, so these ads for pretty frightening-looking sex toys are absolutely wild to see."

11

"And these drawings from a 1970s book are wildly sexist."

12

"This note about clickbait from the 1980s is a little weird to see now, considering what happened with the internet."

13

"I bet you didn't know that Henry Ford was an anti-Semite who inspired Hitler himself. Here, you can see him receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a Nazi award."

14

"These suitcases of people who were sent to concentration camps are so, so sad to see. Many of these people never left those camps, and those who did had lost everything."

15

"It's pretty metal to me that elephants once had armor. This model from 1500s India is incomplete yet is still the largest existing suit of animal armor."

16

"This video of Oppenheimer talking about the atomic bomb is kind of depressing to see, TBH, especially if you've seen Oppenheimer."

17

"This is what the very first Legos looked like. Lego actually started with wooden toys and didn't build their signature bricks until 1949."

18

"Did you know Sony's been around since the 1940s and that their first product was an electric rice cooker?"

19

"This illustrated version of Elisha Otis introducing his invention, the first safe passenger elevator, in the 1850s shows the elevator has changed a lot over the years."

20

"Crayola crayons also used to look very different."

21

"This horse-drawn hearse from the 1800s is making me wish we still used horses and carriages."