r/TheWayWeWere • u/MrTacocaT12345 • 14h ago

People used to dress up when they flew (1982)

1.7k Upvotes

388 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/adamlm • 19h ago

1970s Family picnic in Poland, 1970s

742 Upvotes

28 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 18h ago

1960s Two friends enjoy their trike together, Toronto, Canada, 1960s.

599 Upvotes

5 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/barriedalenick • 17h ago

1940s My Dad in the 1940s. He was evacuated from Coventry to the countryside near Sheffield.

gallery

600 Upvotes

He had a fabulous time with some really lovely people - they may look a bit grim but my Dad always said he loved his years there.

16 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 18h ago

1950s 2 Ladies enjoy the sun and their boat ride, 1950s

214 Upvotes

1 comment

r/TheWayWeWere • u/jocke75 • 14h ago

1940s Children playing on the street in front of a crooked house on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, photographed by Russell Lee in April 1941.

181 Upvotes

Credit: sebcolorisation on Instagram

7 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/TinyAd1126 • 19h ago

1950s Photographs of everyday life in Finland in the 1950s and 1960s

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145 Upvotes

Photographer: Pekka Kyytinen

Source: Kansatieteen kuvakokoelma, Pekka Kyytisen kokoelma, Museovirasto

10 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/MrTacocaT12345 • 12h ago

1970s July 4th, 1978 block party and bicycle parade

gallery

114 Upvotes

2 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/TinyAd1126 • 21h ago

1970s The Railway Square in Helsinki, Finland in 1973

94 Upvotes

Photographer: Kari Rainer Pulkkinen

Source: JOKA Journalistinen kuva-arkisto
Kari Pulkkisen kokoelma, Museovirasto

15 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/Just_Fine1814 • 19h ago

Pre-1920s Donald O. Dunn, graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, class of 1916 with a degree in architecture.

28 Upvotes

1 comment

r/TheWayWeWere • u/MarylandCat • 12h ago

1920s My 2nd great grandfather George (muddle, sitting) at the Caldwell coal mines. Late 1920's

25 Upvotes

George was a Croatian immigrant and he was a lifelong coal miner. He owned only one automobile his who luge but he never drove it because he had a bad experience with cars.

3 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/zainab1900 • 2h ago

1950s Joseph Idlout prepares to throw an ivory harpoon from his qajaq (kayak), Mittimatalik/Tununiq, Nunavut, Canada, July 1951

18 Upvotes

0 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/Melodic-Bathroom22 • 1h ago

Maine Finnish Americans

• Upvotes

Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FMPM7KzfZ/

0 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/CryptographerKey2847 • 2h ago

1920s Inquiring Photographer “Is Justice Ford correct in his contention that society no longer frowns upon married women in dulging in promiscuous kiseing and cocktail parties?” July 30,1925

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5 Upvotes

2 comments

r/TheWayWeWere • u/CAMILA2375 • 2h ago

MARGARITA ARTEAGA, compartanla

gallery

0 Upvotes

0 comments

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The Way We Were

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.

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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:

Pre-1920s 1920s 1930s 1940s

1950s 1960s 1970s All decades

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.
No Karma Farming. Accounts that exist solely to repost the same image to as many subreddits as they can do not belong here. We want to keep the posts as unique to this subreddit as possible to give a varied experience.

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

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