Photos have a quiet magic to them… they can pull us out of the present and drop us into another moment in an instant.

This feeling is even stronger when we look at historic pictures taken across different eras and places.

Some of the moments feel so familiar — for example, we all can relate to a mirror selfie that was taken by a couple in the 1920s in Japan. But at the same time, some moments remind us of such strange times — for example, we will never fully understand what a soldier felt while embracing his baby after returning from World War 2.

Let’s travel back in time a bit, and check out this treasure trove from the Hatcher History Instagram page that reveals glimpses from the past.

#1 A Beaming New Dad Is Pictured Giving His Newborn Child Thumbs-Up From Outside A Window. Soviet Union 1977

Following a long convention, maternity wards typically enforced strict separation between mothers, newborns, and visiting family.
Credit: archaeo adventure

#1 A Beaming New Dad Is Pictured Giving His Newborn Child Thumbs-Up From Outside A Window. Soviet Union 1977

#2 An Inuit Woman Carries Their Babies In Cold Weather Clothing, 1940

#3 A Couple Take A Selfie, In The Reflection Of A Mirror, Japan, 1920s

#4 A Little Girl With Her Pet , Portugal, 1950s

#5 A Very Unique Photo Of The Regional Dress For Ladies In Navarre, Spain, And Particularly From The Town Of Ochagavía, Deep In The Basque Region, On The French Border

#6 Ava Gardner, At The Age Of 19, In 1942

#7 This Is A Mugshot Of 12 Year Old Jane Farrell, Sentenced To 10 Days Of Hard Labour, For The Theft Of A Pair Of Boots, Served At Newcastle Gaol, North Of England, 1874

#8 A Soldier Returning From War, Meets His Child For The First Time, Location Unknown, Ww2

#9 A Soldier Of The French Foreign Legion’s, During The Algerian War, Rescuing A Baby Donkey Found On The Battlefield. He Or She Was Then Adopted And Named Bambi, July Or August 1958

#10 Marilyn Monroe Visiting An Injured American Soldier, Evacuated To Japan From Operations On The Korean War, 1954

#11 After The Berlin Wall Was Put Up By The Communists, A Family In West Berlin Show Their Children To Their Grandparents Stuck In East Berlin, 1961

#12 A Photo Of Nikolai Machulyak, A Russian Arctic Explorer Feeding A Polar Bear And Her Cubs, Off The Coast Of Chukchi Sea, 1976

#13 The Discovery Of The Ancient Statue Of Antinous, Which Was Dug Up At A Site In Delphi, Greece, During An Excavation In 1894

#14 Nothing A Cup Of Tea Won’t Make More Bearable: Blitz London, June 1940

#15 A Coke Delivery Truck, Location Unknown, USA, 1909

#16 Survivors From The 87th Floor Of The World Trade Center (North Tower) Wandering In The Dust After The Collapse Of The South Tower, New York City, September 11, 2001

#17 5-Year Old Harold Walker, Who Was Employed To Pick 20 Pounds Of Cotton A Day. Oklahoma, USA, 1916

#18 A Photo Of Stunned And Disoriented Birds, During The Total Solar Eclipse, Taken In Chiapas, Mexico, July 1991

#19 A Photo Of Dame Daphne Sheldrick In 1960, At The Orphan Elephant Sanctuary She Set Up In The 1950s, In The Karen District Of Nairobi, Kenya

#20 Federico Caprilli Demonstrates The Skills Of His Horse As Part Of The Esteemed Italian Cavalry School, 1906

#21 A Photo Of Laura Petty, A Six-Year Old Berry Picker, On Jenkins Farm, In Maryland, 1909

#22 A Brave Little 3-Year-Old, Eileen Dunne, Sits In Bed With Her Doll At Great Ormond Street Hospital, After Being Injured During An Air Raid On London, During The Blitz Of London By The Luftwaffe, In September, 1940

#23 A Little Girl With A Grizzly Bear, Location Unknown, Mid 20th Century

#24 The Last Man Is Taken Off A Shipwrecked Trawler, Off The Coast Of Southern England, 1962

#25 Henry Worsley, The British Explorer Who Lost His Life In 2016, Attempting A Solitary Trek Across Antarctica

#26 A Happy Couple At The Beach, Coney Island, New Jersey, USA, 1950s

#27 A Colorized Picture Of Three Girls Working As Oyster Shuckers, In South Carolina, USA, 1912

#28 Brigitte Bardot Walking Barefoot In The Island Of Capri, Italy, 1963

#29 A Photograph Of An Italian Lady In Front Of The Colosseum, Rome, Italy, Taken In 1897

#30 A Youngster Practises Her Ballet, On A Rainy Day In Balsall Heath, Birmingham, England, 1968

#31 A Picture Of The Fishing Boat “New England”, Covered In Ice, British Columbia, Canada, 1911

#32 The Rear-Front Memorial, A Bronze And Granite Monument Erected In Steel City Of Magnitogorsk, Russia, Sculpted By Lev Golovnitsky, In 1979

#33 A Portrait Of Life In London’s Famous Portobello Road, London, 1954

#34 A Photo Entitled, Sibling Love, Chicago, USA, 1945

#35 A Group Of Orphans In Their Winter Coats, With A Nun From Margaret House, Hammersmith, London, 1929

#36 A Little Boy All Dressed Up, New York City, USA, 1949

#37 An Mother And Child, Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, USA, Early 20th Century

#38 An Oldish Couple, Perhaps Sharecroppers, Happy With Their Lot, From The Beginning Of The Last Century, Exact Location Unknown, But From The American South

#39 A Beautiful Daguerreotype Of A Smiling Father And Child, Location Unknown, 1856

#40 A Little Girl Collecting Water, Sardinia, Italy, 1954

#41 Medieval Warrior’s Scull

#42 Mother And Child, Canada, Late19th Century

#43 A Market Girl Shows Off Her Wares, By The Sea, Netherlands, 1940s

#44 A Flying Saucer Photographed At A Junkyard In New Mexico, USA, 1962

#45 A Pair Of Roman Shoes Discovered During The Excavation Of A Maritime Site At Thérouanne, Pas-De-Calais, Northern France, 2023

#46 A Youngster Braves It Out During The Blitz On London, With His Teddy Bear, 1940-41. The Capital Was To Endure Over Seventy Nits Of German Bombs

#47 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revists The Attic Entrance Where He And His Family Hid For Two Long Years, Before They’re Betrayal, Amsterdam, In The Netherlands, May 1960

#48 Edwardian Hobnobbing: Dinner At The Astor Hotel, New York City, USA, 1904

#49 A Dutch Family Pose Infront Of Their Sod House, Drenthe, The Netherlands, 1936

#50 Two Nannies With Their Charges, London, 1950s

#51 Brooklyn Bridge Under Construction, NYC, 1880

#52 Trying Out A Fake Tree Observation Post, On The Northern End Of The Trenches That Ran From The English Channel To Switzerland, That We Call The Western Front,

#53 The World’s Oldest Surviving Toy, Dating Back To The Chalcolithic Period Around 5500-3000 Bc, Is Exhibited At The Mardin Museum, Turkey

#54 A Suffragette Is Arrested In A Park, London, C1910

#55 Photo Booth: Jfk With Future Wife Jackie During Their Dating Days

#56 A Young Boy Stops To Be Photographed, While Picking Hops, Yakima Valley, Washington, USA, 1939

#57 A Beautiful Portrait Of A Sicilian Fisherman, Brooding About His Days At Sea, Sicily, Italy, 1870

#58 Female Pilots From The British Air Transport Auxiliary (Ata), Recruited To Work As Ferry Pilots And Deliver Military Airplanes From Factories To Aerodromes In World War II, England, 1939-45

#59 Jack Bonavita, A Circus Lion Tamer, Pictured With His Animals At A Show In New York, 1910: He Was Attacked And Killed By A Polar Bear He Had Tamed, One Has To Say Not Very Well, In 1917

#60 A Photo Of Some Down Time, At Women’s Prison, Then Still Segregated, New Orleans, USA, 1963

#61 This Footprint Captures The Moment, Over 4,000 Years Ago, When Someone Stepped Barefoot On A Mud Brick Left To Dry In The Sun, 2000bc, In The City Of Ur, Mesopotamia

#62 A Pensive American Soldier Cradles A Puppy, Vietnam War, 1965

#63 Recycling In London, During The War, Out Of Necessity, Hornsey, London, England, 1943

#64 A Promotion Photo Of 22-Year-Old Wasp (Women’s Airforce Service Pilot) Pilot, Shirley Slade, Who Was Employed In The War To Deliver Planes To The Us Military For Deployment, All Over America, 1943

#65 Portrait Of 2 Boys With Their Baby Sibling, Manhattan, New York, USA, 1918

#66 A Photo Of General High Brady Taken When He Was In His 80s, In The Late 1840s. The Good General Was Born In 1768, When The Us Were British Colonies And George III Was Still King

#67 A Farmer In Central France Surveys His Domain, C1961

#68 A Lady Plays A Game Of Petang/Petanque, In The South Of France, 1970s

#69 Fisherman In Sou’westers, Off The Coast Of Cornwall, England, Early 20th Century

#70 A Mother And Daughter Watch A Tall Ship Navigate The Thames In London, 1880

#71 Portrait Of A Sicilian Girl, Italy, Early 20th Century

#72 This Photo Of The 17 Year Old Helen Konek Walking Into Her Igloo In Arviat, Nunavut In February 1949

#73 A Civil War Veteran In A Photo Surrounded By His Grandchildren, In 1900

#74 A Young Girl Looks After Her Baby Sister, In The Poverty Of Cholera Ravaged Streets Of Spitalfields, In The East End Of London, 1886

#75 A Lifeboat Launched From The St. Mark And St. Agnes Races To Save Lives, After The Arden Craig, A Three-Masted Wheat Ship From Melbourne, Australia, Crashed Into Rocks After The Captain Became Disoriented In The Fog

#76 A Photo Of A Rest Stop For Geronimo And Other Apache Leaders After Their Surrender Ended The Apache Wars, 1886

#77 In 1925, Diphtheria Affected An Isolated Village In Alaska

#78 A Portrait Shot Of An Athletic Couple Called Jura And Vera, Photographed In The 1930s Yugoslavia

#79 Italians Queue To View The Nemi Ships Of Emperor Caligula’s, Which Were Elaborate Floating Palaces Containing Quantities Of Marble, Mosaic Floors, Heating, And Plumbing

#80 Hms Vidal Riding The Crest Of A Wave, Durian The Second World War, 1940