Powerful Photos That Prove The 1900s Were A Terrifying Time To Be Alive
Life in today is a world away from what life was like a century ago. In the early 20th century, people went about their day-to-day lives – from going on dates to taking walks in the park – yet it was completely different from how we would do those activities in the present day.
For one, people were a lot more daring in their activities, and they constantly had things like war and Prohibition on their minds that would’ve affected the way they lived. Keep reading to see some vintage photographs that will show you what life was like in the first half of the 1900s.
“On-line” Dating Was Not What You Think
Back in the ’20s, young lovers dated online or rather, on-a-line. Here you can see a young couple on a pulley ride at a fair in London’s Hampstead Heath in 1922.
This early form of recreational zip-lining looks dangerous when you consider that they aren’t wearing any protective gear.
Pedal Skating In The Park
Roller skates were invented as early as the mid-1700s. Back then, roller skates were very much like inline skates but were hard to steer and stop, so they weren’t very popular. But in 1913, pedal skates came along.
Charles A. Nordling of Suisun, California, created this variation on the classic roller skate where the wheels were rotated on a pedal that was pushed by the person who wore them. This supposedly made it easier on the user, who wouldn’t have to use so much energy and could actually manage to skate at a high speed.
They Were Some Real Daredevils
This construction worker in New York City decided to pull a daring stunt and walk on a construction girder twenty stories in the air – all while completely blindfolded! This photo was taken in 1925, at a time when construction jobs were abundant as New York City’s most iconic skyscrapers were being built.
Cameras were also the hip, new thing back in those days and workers decided to have fun by posing for wild photos in mid-air like this one. Of course, plenty of men lost their lives during this time. It was believed that one man would die for every $1 million spent on a skyscraper.
Walking On A Sea Of Logs
These loggers are walking on a pile of logs that float in the middle of a river. This log jam on Minnesota’s Littlefork River is being used to build a loading boom. At the time, booms were used to collect floating logs that have fallen into a body of water due to timbering in the neighboring forests.
By 1900, timber in the Midwest was dwindling, so loggers took to the Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t long before resources became scarce but forests continued to get logged at a growing rate.
Another Day On The Job For This Young Newsie
This six-year-old newsboy has been on the job for at least a year when his photo was taken on May 9, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri. Delivering or selling the newspaper was often a youngster’s first job back in those days.
While some of them established subscription routes on which they worked as paperboys, others would hawk the papers on the street by yelling out the sensational headlines. Some ambitious newsies often did both. At this time, newsies were the main distributors of newspapers to the general public.
Where There’s A Will There’s A Way
This is a photo of a policeman trying on a moonshiner’s cow shoe in Washington, D.C. in June 1924. Despite the prohibition that went on during the ’20s, some people still found ways to whet their whistles. Moonshine was produced and transported illegally throughout America as people looked for ways to drink without getting busted.
Some moonshiners would add these attachments to their shoes so that police couldn’t trace their footprints, thinking that they were those of a cow. It was the perfect way to throw a cop off of their trail.
Portable Jail Cell
In 1924, police forces began using motorcycles and needed a way to apprehend criminals on the go. This Los Angeles traffic policeman locked one up in his sidecar cell.
This method obviously didn’t last long. It was pretty dangerous for the person in the sidecar cell, and most of the time, the cells gave the police unnecessary weight to lug around.
This Counted As “Indecent Exposure”
In 1907, Australian actress, writer, vaudeville star, and professional swimmer Annette Kellerman stood up as the first woman to promote the right to wear a fitted bathing suit. The bathing suit (if you can even call it that by today’s standards) was quite modest.
Despite it being modest, Kellerman was arrested for indecency because of this!
A Workplace Accident Waiting To Happen
If you’ve ever looked up at a structure like the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower and wondered how it used to be maintained, this is your answer.
These men are climbing up the side of the Eiffel Tower in 1932 to finish up the paint job. With a lack of safety harnesses or any other safety measures, it’s a wonder any man was willing to risk doing this job.
We’re Glad This Has Stopped
These folks are gathered around to witness Eunice Winkless perform horse diving. In 1905, Winkless performed this stunt for a Fourth of July event.
The stunt woman dove from a 50-foot-high tower into a small pool while on horseback.
Pushing The Modesty Boundaries
In 1922, Colonel Sherrill, the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds in Washington, D.C., issued an order that required all bathing suits worn on the beach must not be more than six inches above the knee.
These ladies here are having their suits measured. If this law was broken, a policeman could issue a warrant.
They Did Anything For Fame And Fortune
On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to ride over Niagra Falls in a barrel and survive. The retired school teacher from Michigan was strapped for cash and decided that the fame from this stunt would help solve that problem.
On her 63rd birthday, Taylor got inside a five-foot pickle barrel that was cushioned with a mattress on the inside. She was towed by a small boat to the middle of the Niagra River and cut loose, letting the current pull her over the 177-foot drop. Save for a cut on her head, Taylor survived but her fifteen minutes of fame didn’t last too long.
When Pigs Can Fly
Lieutenant-Colonel JTC Moore-Brabazon was a pioneer in English aviation. Perhaps when he was a boy telling people he wanted to fly planes, people scoffed and remarked, “when pigs fly.”
Not only was Moore-Brabazon the first Englishman to pilot a heavier-than-air machine under power in England, but he was also the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom. On October 30, 1909, he also helped a pig fly, proving all of his naysayers wrong. To pull off the stunt, Moore-Brabazon put a small pig into a wastebasket and tied it to the wing-strut of his plane.
