History is full of strange and fascinating stories that are often overlooked in traditional education. From obscure historical figures to bizarre events, there is always something new to discover and learn. The addition of vintage photography to this mix of history facts, not only provides context but also a visual representation of the era, making it more relatable and vivid.
From abandoned places, haunted locations, and even travel, it's a great way to explore the past and gain a new perspective on the world. The combination of interesting facts and visually striking images can make for a captivating and entertaining read, that not only educates but also inspires curiosity and the desire to learn more.
A Facebook page called "Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography" is a great resource for anyone who is interested in exploring the past in a unique and captivating way. The page shares an interesting mix of content, such as history facts and vintage photography, which provide a glimpse into the past and a visual representation of the era.
With that being said, make sure to keep an eye for an interesting interview with Dr. Eleanor Barnett who is a food historian!
#1 A Hotel Commissionaire Talking To A Dachshund Dog In Piccadilly Circus, London. 1938
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
Given the chance, Bored Panda reached out to a cultural historian of food and early modern religion, Dr. Eleanor Barnett, who has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. As a food historian, Dr. Barnett is drawn to the field by her desire to connect with the everyday lives of ordinary people in the past.
"I wanted to find a way of connecting to the everyday lives of ordinary people in the past, rather than telling traditional ‘top-down’ histories about kings and queens. After all, everyone has to eat! Especially before the advent of artificial refrigeration and the stacked supermarket shelves of the modern age, food - growing it, cooking it, eating it, reusing leftovers - took up a huge amount of everyone’s time," says Eleanor.
#2 Checking Out The Neighbourhood Drama ? C. 1950 - 1960 Europe
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#3 Deadly Victorian Staircases
One area of Victorian design that was often overlooked was the staircase, especially those installed for the use of servants.
They were made too narrow, too steep and with irregular steps, the servants staircase was deadly.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
The food historian approaches her research and writing about the history of food and food culture by not just asking about what past people ate but why, how, and with whom they ate it. "No culture eats everything that’s edible. Think about our modern, western aversion to eating insects. Why is it that we don’t want to eat them? The answer tells us something profound about our values, identity, and our understanding of the natural world. Or think about who you eat with. Family, friends, colleagues? By sharing food, we enact certain rituals intended to forge or solidify allegiances. This was true of people in the past too, so studying food tells us much more about a culture than just changing diets over time," she adds.
#4 An Old Cat Flap
This old door is in Exeter Cathedral, UK.
The door had a hole cut in it between 1598-1621 to allow access for the cathedral cat who was paid per week in food for mouse/rat catching duties.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#5 Vintage Photography - Women With Tattoos
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
What Eleanor finds most rewarding about her work as a food historian is "Nothing beats the hours spent exploring piles of handwritten records in the archives! As part of my research, I was lucky enough to study 16th and 17th-century court records from the Venetian Inquisition. It’s so rewarding to hear the voices of people who lived hundreds of years ago and to reconstruct what their lives - and their diets! - would have been like."
#6 Vintage Photography - The Wind
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#7 The First Known Photo Of A Tornado. Shot By A.a. Adams In Kansas, 1884
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
The history of food and food culture has been shaped by social, cultural, and political factors. Dr. Barnett explains it by saying "The dietary decisions that people make have long been shaped by wider social, cultural, economic, political, and religious factors. In the Renaissance period, for example, people believed that peasants and the wealthy had different types of bodies that suited different foods. The poor were associated with onions, garlic, and other simple vegetables whereas the rich were advised by doctors to eat more seemingly lavish foods like chicken."
#8 Henry VIII's Kitchen At Hampton Court Palace
The staff had to produce over 800 meals a day for the king and all of his courtiers.
The char sure shows its past!
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#9 Mobile Phones Were Predicted 59 Years Ago. It Was Predicted In 1963 That We Would Have Mobile Phones In The Future, Zoom In And Have A Read!
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
In her research, Eleanor uses primary sources, such as cookbooks and food-related documents. "Cookbooks - and the tantalizing (sometimes bizarre!) dishes they prescribe - are really exciting ways of studying the past. You might even try recreating a past recipe if you want to be transported to the flavors and smells of a past society!
Just like today, however, cookbooks are often aspirational texts. How many of us have a delicious selection of cookbooks on the kitchen shelf but end up making our go-to spaghetti bolognese recipe (again!) after a long day at work? So historians of food pair these culinary texts with other rich primary sources, like account books, medicinal tracts, images, and court records."
#10 150 Million Year Old Dinosaur Footprints
Outside of the French village of Plagne, you will find 500ft/150m long stretch of dinosaur footprints dating back 150 million years.
After examination, scientists concluded the tracks were left by a Sauropod. Today it is recognised as the longest Sauropod dinosaur track ever discovered.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#11 The Offical Recorded Number Of Children Born To One Mother Is 69, From Shuya, Russia
Between 1725 - 1765, Mrs Vassilyev popped out 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets, over 27 separate labours. The grand total: 69 children.
Due to the time period, there are no photos of the kids or family that have been confirmed as legitimate. So here’s a random photo!
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
Another thing the food historian finds most fulfilling about the work she does is "Sharing this research with a wonderful community of food, history, and art lovers from across the world has been a really rewarding experience. I love connecting to my followers by learning about the role that food plays in different cultural traditions," as she shares her research on Instagram under the handle 'Historyeats'.
#12 Queen Elizabeth I's Only Known Surviving Dress
St Faiths Church in Bacton was containing a significant item important to British history with out even knowing for hundreds of years, Queen Elizabeth I’s only surviving dress.
The dress was used as an alter cloth before being discovered.
It’s believed that the dress was given to Blanche Parry, the queen’s Chief Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber. Elizabeth was known to have gifted clothing to her.
This church was Blanche’s families church, which most likely explains why it was found there. Since the church was dark inside, the colours on the dress have been preserved with minimal fading.
The silver chamblet silk fabric, embroidered with gold and silver thread and cut in a manner suggesting it once constituted two sections of a skirt, bodice and sleeves, closely resembles the gown donned by Elizabeth in the so-called “Rainbow Portrait.” Painted by artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger around 1600.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#13 This Mannequin Was Designed By Angelique Marguerite Le Boursier Du Coudray During The 1700’s. It Was Used For Teaching Midwifery
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#14 Tudor Home Interior & Exterior
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#15 The Lady In The Photo Is Betty Lou Oliver. She Survived A Plunge Of 75 Stories In A Lift In The Empire State Building In New York In 1945
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#16 Agatha Christie Celebrating Her 81st Birthday With Her Husband And Friends At Dartmoor, Devon, 1971
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#17 Here We Have Two Cats In 1966 Keeping To Their Ancestors Christmas Tradition Of Knocking Over The Tree Every Year!
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#18 The Most Photographed Man Of The 1800’s - Frederick Douglass
He was the most photographed man of the 19th century, sitting for more than 160 portraits and photos.
He almost never smiled during photographs, it was an expression he viewed as too friendly.
He was careful to be photographed in settings that emphasized dignity, accomplishment and power, all things denied to those like him who had been enslaved.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#19 This Is A 600-Year-Old Medieval Hat Which Was Found In Lappvattnet, Sweden
The hat is made out of sheep's wool and was preserved in a bog. It can be found at the Västerbottens museum in Sweden.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#20 Susanna Salter Was The First Female Mayor In The US (1887)
A group of men hated the idea of women being involved in politics and decided to pull a prank. So they submitted a list of candidates names from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
They thought that NO MAN would vote for a female mayor. They wanted to humiliate the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Susanna didn’t know about the prank until the local Republican Party sent representatives to her house to see if she was actually running for office.
She went with it and became Mayor of Argonia, Kansas. She also won over 60% of the votes
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#21 Queen Victoria's Engagement Ring
Shaped like a serpent, the ring includes small rubies, diamonds, and an emerald, which was Queen Victoria’s birthstone.
At the time snakes were a symbol of wisdom and commitment. It was also common during this era for engagement rings to feature birthstones rather than diamonds.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#22 Order A Drink Through A 400 Year Old Wine Window
These little windows were introduced during the 1600s, they’re mostly in Tuscany, Italy.
They are carved into the concrete walls of wineries and shops. Wine Window owners are using their wine windows to dispense glasses of wine, cups of coffee, drinks, sandwiches and ice cream to promote social distancing.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#23 This Was Once The Oldest House In Hamburg Germany. It Was Built In 1504 And Was Demolished In 1910
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#24 Queen Sophia Magdalena's Wedding Dress, Circa 1766, Now On Display At The Royal Armoury In Stockholm
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#25 This Note Was Written By Albert Einstein In 1922. It Sold For $1.6m At An Auction In 2017
The story behind the quote is that Albert Einstein gave the note to a courier in Tokyo instead of a tip.
Albert was on a lecture tour at the time in Japan, when the courier came to his room Albert didn’t have any money to tip him.
So instead of a tip, he wrote the courier a note in German: "A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it."
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#26 Mary Maloney Was An Irish Suffragette Campaigner And Member Of The Women's Social And Political Union
She became the Organiser for the London Council of the Women's Freedom League in 1908.
She was most famous for her acts of protest during the 1908 by-elections of Dundee, Scotland, this was during the time when Churchill was running to regain a seat in Parliament.
Mary would turn up at Churchill's public engagements and proceed to drown him out by ringing a bell
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#27 Vintage Photography - The Zoo
1. Barbary lion Sultan in the Bronx Zoo’s Lion House, April 1903. Now extinct in the wild, Barbary lions once roamed North Africa.
2. First of four thylacines who lived at the Bronx Zoo between 1902 and 1919. The last known thylacine died at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in 1936.
3-4. London zoo 1930s
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#28 Ava Gardner’s Movie Studio Application In 1941
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#29 Photographer Bert Stern Taking A Mirror "Selfie" With Marilyn Monroe On A Bed During A Legendary Photo Shoot For Vogue In 1962
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#30 Wild Child - Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt was born on February 12th, 1884. She was the eldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Alice was known for her independent and free-spirited nature that breathed new life into the early 20th century for women.
As a teen, she decided to climb onto the roof of the White House, where she could smoke without technically breaking her father’s rule “not under my roof”.
She had a pet snake, named Emily Spinach. Alice would carry the snake around with her in either her purse or dress pocket and take the snake to social events.
The New York Herald printed a running score of her social life over the course of one 15-month period, which included: 407 dinners, 350 balls, 300 parties, 680 teas, and 1,706 social calls.
Alice started to receive so much fan mail at the White House, the Roosevelts had to hire an additional secretary solely for Alice’s mail.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth was one of the key faces of modern and celebrated American womanhood.
Alice passed away at 96, leaving behind a unique legacy that continues to inspire the kind of free willed spirit we might all benefit from having a little more of.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#31 Fancy Some 121 Year Old Chocolate?
A 121-year-old chocolate bar that was given to British troops to boost morale during the Boer Wars in South Africa has been discovered in the attic of a National Trust property.
The chocolate, still in its original wrapper and tin, was part of a batch commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1900.
It was found in a Boer War helmet case at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk.
The chocolate, which belonged to the 8th Baronet, Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld, was discovered by National Trust conservators. The conservators found the chocolate whilst cataloguing the belongings of his daughter Frances Greathead, who died last year aged 100.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#32 Gertrude Haessler Attempted To Enter The White House On Thanksgiving Day During The Great Depression To Express Her Frustrations & Struggles To President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#33 An Antique Shopping List! (1920’s-1950’s)
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#34 No Matter The Weather Or If There Is A War! The Mail Man Still Gets The Job Done! (1920-1940)
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#35 Vintage Louis Vuitton Tea Case From The 1920’s
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#36 Window Tax Was Introduced In England And Wales, In 1696, And Scotland, In 1748
The more windows a building had, the more its owner had to pay. Initially, the window tax applied to buildings with more than 10 windows, the tax was later extended to include those with seven or more windows.
King William III introduced window tax and was designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer, but without the controversy that then surrounded the idea of income tax.
It was used in the UK, France, Ireland and other parts of the world. It was abolished in 1851.
It’s supposedly where the term “daylight robbery” comes from.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#37 Pets During The Blitz
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#38 Fireplace At Cragside House In Northumberland, England
The house was built by Norman Shaw for a wealthy industrialist in 1880 and is famous as the first house in the world to have lights powered by hydroelectricity.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#39 Anne Frank, Photographed By Her Father, Before The Family Went Into Hiding In 1942
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#40 Victorians & Edwardians On Bikes
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#41 This Is A 1400’s Cruck-Beam Cottage Preserved In A Wall Beside St Mary's Gate In St John's Street, Wirksworth, UK
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#42 This Is The Baptism Basin Of Basilica Of St. Vitale, Sbeitla
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#43 This Is A Petronella Dunois Dollshouse That Can Be Found At The Rijksmuseum Museum In Amsterdam, It Dates Back To The Late 1600s
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#44 Lynnewood Hall: The Abandoned Mansion With A Tragic Titanic Connection
George Dunton Widener and Harry Elkins Widener both died when the RMS Titanic sank in 1912.
Which only left Peter Widener their relative to take ownership of the hall, he died at the age of 80 in 1915.
The hall changed hands a few times over the years, with large portions of the estate grounds sold off in the 1940s.
In 1952, the estate was purchased by the Faith Theological Seminary, it was purchased for $192,000 but it was left to suffer further decline when much of Lynnewood's valuable assets were sold off, including more than 350 acres of land.
The house now has 33 acres and is owned by the First Korean Church of New York.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#45 Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth (The Queen’s Mother) And Queen Elizabeth II
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#46 Dresses 120 - 250 Years Ago
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#47 Women Working During The War
With the outbreak of war, women carried out work in the farming, manufacturing, engineering, weaponry and transport industries; and also served in the military.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#48 In 1963, Bill Clinton Shook Hands With President John F. Kennedy In The Rose Garden Of The White House. Clinton Was 16 Attending The American Legion Boys Nation Program
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#49 James Dean Posing Inside A Casket Seven Months Before His Death, 1955
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#50 A Life Magazine Shot C.1950’s
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#51 Suffragette Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst Painting “Votes For Women" At The Women's Social And Political Union Premises 198 Bow Road, East London 1912
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#52 Nina Leen Was A Fashion Photographer, A Constant Contributor To Life Magazine
Nina moved to the United States in 1939, she was fascinated by American culture. By 1945 she was one of the first female photographers to join the staff at LIFE magazine. During her time there she produced over forty covers and a myriad of spreads. Nina passed away in 1995 in New York.
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#53 The Efforts Of Taking A Photo Over 100 Years Ago!
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#54 Marilyn Monroe In Front Of A Billboard For As Young As You Feel, 20th Century Fox, 1951
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#55 Vintage Make Up
Top left: 1950s lipstick
Top right: 1920s blush
Bottom left: 1980s Dior lipstick
Bottom right: 1920s lipstick
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#56 Vintage Photography - The Original Selfies
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#57 The First Photo Of A Person. Taken In 1838 By Louis Daguerre, This Is Believed To Be The Earliest Photograph Showing A Person. The Photo Was Taken Of Boulevard Du Temple, Paris
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
#58 Las Vegas Strip During The 1950’s
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#59 Vintage Photography - People Looking Cool
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#60 A European Hearse From The 1800’s
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#61 Vintage Photography - Easter
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#62 The Aftermath From Christmas Shoppers, Macy's, New York City, 1948
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#63 Harrods Department Store, London 1902
Image credits: Weird History Facts & Vintage Photography
source https://www.boredpanda.com/old-vintage-pics-weird-history-facts/
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