1.
This Civil War draft notice:
2.
This signature portion of Japan’s 1945 surrender, where Canada’s rep accidentally signed below their line, causing each subsequent signature to be pushed down a line:
3.
This American Passport from 1961, which did not permit travel to communist countries:
4.
This 1914 article that didn’t realize it was reporting on the lead-up to WW1:
5.
This 1912 article about climate change:
6.
This penny from 1943 that was made with steel, because the government needed copper for ammunition in WWII:
7.
This ad that reminds us that 14-year-olds used to be allowed to drive:
8.
This 1917 letter from a 7-year-old expressing hope that Santa will “kick the Kaiser in the rump”:
9.
This 1942 coupon that people could redeem for a new atlas after WWII, since the map was expected to change:
10.
This 1922 college application:
11.
This list of things children would be “lashed” over in the early 1900s:
12.
This 1939 article that aged very poorly:
13.
Along with this 1942 headline:
14.
This 1954 recruitment letter from the CIA:
15.
This letter from a Vietnam soldier that’s just really, really sad:
16.
This tuition bill that just makes me sad about the state of our country:
17.
This extremely early use of what would become the “like” symbol on Facebook:
18.
This selfie stick in a 1957 Flemish comic:
19.
This early use of the word “dope,” though not with its current definition:
20.
This 1938 magazine report on a new device that’s essentially a vape:
21.
This 1923 world map with the Arctic labeled “unexplored”:
22.
These 1954 requirements for being a flight attendant:
23.
These cigarettes that airplanes would actually give you while in-flight, before all flights were non-smoking:
24.
These 1923 pay rates for railroad workers:
25.
This gear for a child coal miner:
26.
This 1932 World Atlas, which labels people’s religion in different places, including “heathen” as a category:
27.
This old ad for a “facial” massager:
28.
This 1933 hospital bill for someone who stayed in the hospital for a week:
29.
This 1920s ad for using tapeworms for weight loss:
30.
This 1969 MAD magazine back cover that called Ronald Reagan an “ex-movie star who wanted to be President”:
31.
This old 1920s copy of Hamlet where the owner wrote down the boys she’d gone out with:
32.
This tank driver’s license:
33.
This 1920 Presidential ballot:
34.
These “survival biscuits” from 1963, with the threat of nuclear war looming:
35.
This 1963 postcard explaining zip codes from when they were first put into place:
36.
And finally, this 1933 letter about the “Hitler situation”: