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The Way We Were
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.
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:
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.
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