Historidex / Famous, but not like this

Famous Historical Figures and Places, Seen Differently

Well-known people and places, shown from an angle few have seen.

54 famous historical figures and places stories

• Typhoid Mary, as the papers drew her 1909, New York City, New York

  On June 20, 1909, the New York American ran this drawing of cook Mary Mallon adding skulls to a frying pan. She had been held on North Brother Island since 1907 as a healthy carrier of typhoid. Freed in 1910, she was caught cooking again in 1915 and spent 26 years there in all.

• The code the Japanese never broke 1943, New Georgia, Solomon Islands

  The Japanese never broke the Navajo code. It began with 29 Navajo recruits in May 1942, and the program stayed classified until 1968. These three Navajo Marines sent messages with the Marine Raiders on New Georgia in 1943.

• Migrant Mother and her children 1936, Nipomo, California, USA

  Dorothea Lange's 1936 portrait of Florence Thompson first showed a thumb gripping the tent pole at lower right. The thumb was retouched off the negative in the 1930s. The Library of Congress holds both the altered negative and this print made before the change.

• Camels Pass the Sphinx 1897, Giza, Egypt

  Camel riders pass the Sphinx in this Lumière film from 1897, shot with a camera that never moves. The Great Pyramid rises right behind the Sphinx's head. The Lumière catalogue lists it as number 381.

• A guardian bull with five legs about 883 to 859 BCE, Nimrud, Iraq

  Assyrian sculptors gave this guardian bull five legs, so it looks planted from the front and striding from the side. It stood at a palace doorway at Nimrud around 883 to 859 BCE. The Met reads its horned cap as a sign of divinity.

• Oxen on the Appian Way 1911, Appian Way, Rome, Italy

  Two ox carts piled with hay pass ruined tombs on the Appian Way in 1911. The censor Appius Claudius Caecus began the road in 312 BCE as a military route to Capua. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in July 2024.

• Dorando falls five times 1908, White City Stadium, London

  In the 1908 Olympic marathon in London, Dorando Pietri of Italy fell five times inside the stadium, and officials helped him over the line. The American team protested and he was disqualified, which gave the gold to Johnny Hayes. Queen Alexandra gave him a cup the next day.

• John Snow's map of cholera deaths 1854, Soho, London, England

  Cholera hit London's Soho on August 31, 1854, and more than 500 people died within ten days. John Snow traced the deaths to the Broad Street water pump, and its handle was taken off on September 8. He drew this map afterward, marking each death with a black bar.

• The war hero pigeon was male 1919, United States

  Army pigeon records called Cher Ami a hen, but Smithsonian DNA tests in 2021 showed the bird was male. Cher Ami is credited with carrying a Lost Battalion message in October 1918, though records disagree on which flight cost the bird a leg and a chest wound.

• Whitman and the cardboard butterfly 1870s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

  Walt Whitman told a friend the butterfly on his finger was a real moth. It was a cardboard cutout, and the Library of Congress still holds it. The wire on the prop matches a band around his finger in this 1870s portrait.

• Dancers Before Angkor's Carved Dancers 1921, Angkor Wat, Cambodia

  In February 1921 dancers performed in front of carved apsaras at Angkor Wat while a film camera ran for Albert Kahn's Archives of the Planet. The museum record names four roles: a warrior king, a young prince, a soldier and a servant. The full film runs more than five minutes.

• Napoleon Toppled in Paris 1871, Place Vendôme, Paris, France

  On May 16, 1871, the Paris Commune pulled down the Vendôme Column, and the statue of Napoleon on top crashed to the ground. Painter Gustave Courbet had proposed taking it down. Afterward he was ordered to pay for rebuilding, about 323,000 francs, and went into exile in Switzerland.

• Billy the Kid's mirror-image tintype 1879-1880, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, USA

  A tintype is a mirror image, so this one puts Billy the Kid's Colt on his left hip and started the belief that he was left-handed. Flipped, the pistol sits on his right. It is the only photo of him that historians widely accept.

• An Etruscan chariot sold abroad mid 6th century BCE, Monteleone di Spoleto, Italy

  In 1902 a local man digging at Monteleone di Spoleto uncovered this Etruscan chariot in a tomb, and the Met acquired it in 1903. Its bronze panels show scenes from the life of Achilles. The village has pressed for its return.

• The looting of the Benin Bronzes 1897, Benin City, present-day Nigeria

  In February 1897 a British force of about 1,200 men invaded the Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, and looted Benin City. They took thousands of objects now called the Benin Bronzes, and the palace burned. This photo, attributed to expedition member Reginald Granville, shows looted plaques laid out in the Oba's burnt compound.

• Two Roosevelt boys at Lincoln's funeral 1865, New York City, USA

  Two small figures in a second-floor window here are thought to be six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt and his brother Elliott, at their grandfather's house as Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession passed Union Square in April 1865. Edith Roosevelt later said she was in the house with them. The faces cannot be made out.

• Elephants Walk Past Carved Elephants 1921, Angkor Thom, Cambodia

  Real elephants walk past a wall of carved elephants on the Terrace of the Elephants at Angkor Thom in this film from 1921. The terrace takes its name from that frieze of elephants. The film also records the city's gates and the Bayon temple.

• A princess's inlaid pectoral about 1887 to 1878 BCE, Lahun, Egypt

  Princess Sithathoryunet's gold pectoral is inlaid with hundreds of cut pieces of carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise and garnet. It carries the throne name of King Senwosret II. Excavators found it in her tomb at Lahun in 1914.

• A map drawn on gazelle skin 1513, Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire

  Ottoman admiral Piri Reis drew this world map on gazelle skin in 1513. German scholar Gustav Deissmann found the surviving third in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace in 1929. Piri Reis wrote that he combined about 20 older maps, including a now-lost map by Columbus.

• Germany's gold reserve in a salt mine 1945, Merkers, Germany

  In April 1945 the Third Army found most of Germany's Reichsbank gold reserve in a salt mine at Merkers. The mine held about 100 tons of gold, plus Berlin museum paintings. Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton toured it on April 12.

• An early marble kouros from Attica about 590 to 580 BCE, Attica, Greece

  This marble kouros, carved around 590 to 580 BCE, is an early example of life size Greek statuary. The Met says it marked the grave of a young Athenian aristocrat. Its stiff stance, with arms at the sides, was borrowed from Egyptian art.

• The Gould Stradivari violin 1693, Cremona, Italy

  Antonio Stradivari built around 1,100 instruments in Cremona, most of them violins. Estimates of how many survive range from about 500 to 650. This one, the Gould violin, dates to 1693 and was given to the Met by George Gould in 1955.

• Lincoln's son at the Lincoln Memorial 1922, Washington, D.C., USA

  On May 30, 1922, Robert Todd Lincoln stood beside President Harding at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, with Chief Justice Taft at left. He was Abraham Lincoln's last surviving son, about 78. He listened as other speakers honored his father.

• A Four Horned Jade Figure about 4700 to 2920 BCE, Northeast China

  This jade figure from northeast China has a bovine head with four horns and drilled holes for hanging it on a cord. Cleveland dates it to 4700 to 2920 BCE and attributes it probably to the Hongshan culture, whose tombs often hold jade.

• A king spearing a stag, in silver about 399 to 420 CE, Iran

  This Sasanian silver plate, gilded with mercury, shows a king spearing a rearing stag. The Met names him Yazdgard I, who ruled 399 to 420 CE, from his crown, though the crown differs from the cloth covered one he usually wears. Plates like this were often given as diplomatic gifts.

• Carrying Mexico's Independence Bell 1896, Mexico City, Mexico

  On 15 September 1896, a Lumière cameraman filmed the Independence bell being carried to the National Palace in Mexico City through a very dense crowd. A jostle in the crowd swung the camera off its aim. The president still rings that bell every 15 September.

• A glazed watchtower for the dead 1st to 3rd century CE, China

  Han dynasty tombs often held pottery models of buildings, called mingqi, or spirit objects. This green glazed watchtower has bracketed roofs, an outside staircase and latticework screens. It dates to the 1st to early 3rd century CE.

• Blondin walks Niagara Gorge 1859, Niagara Gorge, USA and Canada

  On June 30, 1859, Charles Blondin walked a tightrope across the Niagara Gorge. In later crossings he pushed a wheelbarrow and carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back. William England took this photo in 1859 for the London Stereoscopic Company.

• Candy on handkerchief parachutes 1948-1949, Berlin, Germany

  Lt. Gail Halvorsen promised Berlin children gum and said he would wiggle his plane's wings so they would know it was him. He dropped candy on handkerchief parachutes. Other crews soon joined in, like this C-54 with parachutes falling behind its tail.

• An ancient counterfeit coin about 600 to 500 BCE, Kyzikos, Mysia

  This Greek coin from Kyzikos, made around 600 to 500 BCE, looks like solid electrum. The Met calls it an ancient counterfeit, only plated, and says forgery seems to have been widespread then. Such coins are called fourrées, French for stuffed, after the cheaper core under the plating.

• Sailors Climb Mount Vesuvius 1920s, Mount Vesuvius, Italy

  Sailors in a US Navy film climb a bare slope, then crouch on rough ground. The National Archives says this reel shows sailors walking among the ruins of Pompeii and climbing Mount Vesuvius. The archive dates the film to 1920, but the cruiser Memphis, seen in other reels, was not commissioned until 1925.

• Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa 1889-1894, Vailima, Upolu, Samoa

  Robert Louis Stevenson arrived in Samoa in December 1889 and died there on December 3, 1894. After he helped win the release of chiefs held in 1893, they built a road to his home, now called the Road of the Loving Heart. He stands here with the Samoan chief Tuimalealiifano.

• A cattle stable buried with a steward about 2000 BCE, Thebes, Egypt

  In 1920 Herbert Winlock's Met team found a hidden chamber of wooden models in Meketre's tomb at Thebes, including this cattle stable. Men feed the oxen by hand, and one ox lies down, apparently full. The models were later split between Cairo and the Met.

• A Maya Ballplayer Mid Dive about 600 to 1000 CE, Yucatan, Mexico

  A Maya ballplayer dives for the ball on this vessel from about 600 to 1000 CE, wearing a thick guard on his torso. The ball was solid rubber and heavy, and players mostly hit it with their hips. The scene is set within stepped walls, probably those of a ball court.

• Athens' owl coin 449 to 440 BCE, Athens, Attica, Greece

  Athens made its owl tetradrachms from Laurion silver to a standard weight of about 17.2 grams, and traders trusted them across the Mediterranean. This one dates to 449 to 440 BCE. The olive leaves on Athena's helmet and the crescent moon behind the owl place it after the Persian Wars.

• A Giraffe on a Leash 5th century, Eastern Mediterranean

  This 5th century floor mosaic, from somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, shows a man leading a giraffe on a rope. It is about 1.7 meters wide. The Art Institute calls it one of only a few early Byzantine giraffe images, and says its accuracy suggests the artist saw real ones.

• Mark Twain in Tesla's lab 1894, New York City, USA

  Mark Twain holds a loop of wire and a glowing lamp in Nikola Tesla's New York lab in spring 1894. High-frequency current passing through his body lit the lamp. The photo ran in Century Magazine in April 1895, a month after fire destroyed the lab.

• A Cloak the Desert Preserved about 300 BCE to 200 CE, South Coast, Peru

  Paracas people buried their dead wrapped in layers of cloth, and Peru's dry coast kept many of those textiles intact. This mantle is 115 inches wide and carries double headed birds embroidered in red, blue, yellow and green. Cleveland dates it to about 300 BCE to 200 CE.

• A Chavín style gold ear ornament about 500 to 200 BCE, Northern highlands, Peru

  Cleveland dates this hammered gold ear ornament to about 500 to 200 BCE. It is in the Chavín style of the Peruvian highlands. Cleveland says elite men and women wore such ornaments as emblems of their ties to Chavín religion and were eventually buried with them.

• K2 on giant glass plates 1909, Baltoro Glacier, Karakoram

  Vittorio Sella photographed K2 in 1909 on the Duke of the Abruzzi's expedition. He was known for working with large 30 by 40 centimeter glass plates, and he designed his own pack saddles and rucksacks to carry them.

• The staged sharpshooter photo 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

  On July 6, 1863, Alexander Gardner's team photographed a dead Confederate at Devil's Den, then moved the body more than 40 yards to this stone nook and photographed it again. Gardner called him a sharpshooter. Historian William Frassanito concluded the rifle was probably a prop.

• A jar won in a footrace about 366 to 365 BCE, Athens, Greece

  Winners at the Panathenaic Games in Athens took home jars of olive oil. This jar, made around 366 to 365 BCE, shows Athena on one side and a footrace on the other. The winner of the chariot race could receive as many as 140 of them.

• A Copy of Alexander's Tabletop Herakles 1 to 100 CE, Roman Empire

  The poets Martial and Statius wrote about a tiny bronze Herakles by Lysippos that Alexander the Great was said to carry on campaign. Hannibal and Sulla were said to have owned it later. This marble statuette is one of the Roman copies made for collectors.

• Houdini Before the Jump 1908, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

  In spring 1908, Harry Houdini let a Boston patrolman cuff his hands behind his back and chain him to a collar, then jumped from the Harvard Bridge into the Charles River. At least 10,000 people watched, and he came up holding the shackles.

• The Apollo 11 quarantine trailer 1969, Houston, Texas

  After splashdown in July 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins lived in a modified Airstream trailer in case they carried lunar germs. President Nixon greeted them through its window on the USS Hornet. Here the trailer comes off a C-141 in Houston on July 27, the crew still inside.

• A temple singer's outer coffin about 1000 to 945 BCE, Thebes, Egypt

  Henettawy was a singer of Amun at Thebes. The Met says she was buried in a plundered tomb first made for Minmose, an official of Hatshepsut, and her coffins fit one inside the other like Russian dolls. Met archaeologists excavated the tomb in 1923 to 1924.

• The Colossi of Memnon 1849 to 1850, Luxor, Egypt

  These two seated statues of Amenhotep III stand about 18 meters tall, counting their bases. The northern one was reportedly cracked by an earthquake, then said to make a sound near dawn. Visitors in Roman times carved more than 100 inscriptions on the statues, and a later repair may have ended the sound.

• Three Men Before the Winter Journey 1911, Cape Evans, Antarctica

  Herbert Ponting photographed Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard with their sledge at Cape Evans in June 1911, around the start of their winter journey. They were gone about five weeks to collect emperor penguin eggs and came back with three. Cherry-Garrard later called it the worst journey in the world.

• The Owl Coin of Athens 480 to 449 BCE, Athens, Greece

  Athenian silver coins carried an owl, and sending owls to Athens became a Greek joke for bringing something to a place that already has plenty. Aristophanes uses the line in The Birds. The three letters ΑΘΕ on this coin start the city's name.

• Annie Oakley Fires for Edison's Camera 1894, West Orange, New Jersey

  On November 1, 1894, Edison hired Annie Oakley to fire a rifle in his Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. He wanted to see whether his motion picture camera could capture gun smoke.

• Yosemite Valley From the Rim c. 1865, Yosemite Valley, California, USA

  Carleton Watkins hauled nearly 2,000 pounds of equipment into Yosemite in 1861, including a camera that used 18 by 22 inch glass plates. His prints reached Washington and are said to have helped persuade Congress to protect the valley. Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant on June 30, 1864.

• Armstrong in Aldrin's Visor 1969, Sea of Tranquility, the Moon

  Neil Armstrong took this photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969. Armstrong is the figure reflected in the visor, beside the lunar module. He carried the camera most of the time, so few pictures show him.

• Sandow Flexes for Edison's Camera 1894, West Orange, New Jersey

  Eugen Sandow posed for Edison's camera at the Black Maria studio on March 6, 1894, flexing against a dark backdrop. W. K. L. Dickson copyrighted the film that May as Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope.

• Fenton's Valley of the Shadow of Death 1855, Near Sevastopol, Crimea

  On April 23, 1855, Roger Fenton photographed this Crimean ravine twice from the same spot, once with cannonballs on the road and once with them in the ditch. Errol Morris and an optical engineer concluded this version, with balls on the road, came second, so someone likely placed them there.

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