Sat, April 18, 2026 at 2:31 PM UTC
1. This is what teenage girls in the 1920s looked like dressed for a high school dance:
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2. This is one of only six remaining life vests from the Titanic.
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3. And this is a first-class menu that was on the actual voyage — a passenger put it in her purse after lunch, then later made it to safety in a lifeboat.
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4. This is what was in Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated, April 14, 1865.
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5. This dress was worn by Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861.
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6. And this is the boot John Wilkes Booth wore the night he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865
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7. These were the dentures — made of lead, human teeth, cow teeth, and elephant ivory — George Washington wore from 1789 until his death in 1799.
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8. And these 19th century dentures were made using the teeth of dead soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo.
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9. This is the original diary of Anne Frank, which she wrote the majority of while in hiding from the Nazis from 1942–1944.
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10. This is a 2,000-years-old Roman gold coin — featuring an image of second-century Emperor Antoninus Pius — that looks better than some coins currently in circulation!
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11. This is a 1920s-era ad for “reducing soap,” which claimed to have the power to make you lose weight and look younger.
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12. This is one of 20 or so remaining bicorne black beaver hats belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, which he wore sideways to be recognizable in battle.
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13. And this is Napoleon’s death mask, made after he died at age 51 on May 5, 1821.
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14. This is Ludwig van Beethoven’s last grand piano keyboard, used in the last few years before his death in 1827.
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15. And this is a musical score handwritten by Beethoven.
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16. This is the death mask of Frederick Douglass, the famed 19th century author, abolitionist, and civil rights leader.
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17. This is the Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest known written laws, dating back to around 2100 BCE.
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18. This wedding dress was worn by Queen Victoria in 1840.
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19. This is a surviving newspaper ad from 1865, posted by a man looking for a wife. His selling points included having “a good set of teeth” and “a two-year-old bull.”
20. This is a real 1853 ad taken out by a Kentucky trader offering to pay $1,200–$1,250 dollars to purchase Black people. (It’s also a reminder of our nation’s racist history and slavery.)
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21. This is a depiction of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (where Mexico City now stands) in the early 1500s. It was larger and more sophisticated than many European cities when the Spanish arrived in 1519.
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22. This early 16th century notebook of scientific writings belonged to Leonardo da Vinci. Known as The Codex Leicester, it was sold at auction to Bill Gates in 1994 for a whopping $30,802,500.
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23. This is a 19th century ad for Ketchup, which was originally sold as a medicine that could cure indigestion, diarrhea, and even jaundice.
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24. These 8,000 sculptures of soldiers — known as the Terracota Army — were buried in 211 BCE with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
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The idea is that the soldiers would protect the emperor during the afterlife. Here’s a closer look at one.
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25. This 19th century ad for “Cocaine Toothache Drops” claimed to be an “instantaneous cure” for toothaches.
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26. This is the field armor King Henry VIII of England used during the siege of Boulogne in 1544.
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27. This is the original London Bridge — which is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
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28. This is what high school cheerleaders looked like in the 1920s. Cheerleaders were mostly male until World War II
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29. This is a 1904 ad for Schlitz Beer that presented it as “fact” that beer was healthy for people of all ages.
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
30. This is a contemporaneous depiction of the first human flight, achieved by the Montgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon in 1783.
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31. This is the Volkswagen Beetle serial killer Ted Bundy drove in the 1970s and used to lure his victims. It played a role in his first arrest (his victim’s hairs were found in the car).
32. These are the medicines Florence Nightingale took to the Crimean War (circa 1850s), where she trained nurses and cared for injured soldiers.
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33. This is St. Kevin’s Church — built in the 12th century — which still stands in Wicklow, Ireland.
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34. This is the Wright Flyer, the plane the Wright brothers piloted for the first successful flight on December 17, 1903.
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35. And these are the glasses Jeffrey Dahmer wore in prison, circa 1992–1994.
36. This pink performance outfit belonged to Patsy Cline. She first wore it in 1958; it was made by her mother Hilda and featured record patches of her hit songs.
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37. This is the Swedish warship Vasa which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged in such impressive condition that it’s now the world’s best-preserved 17th-century ship.
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38. This is a business card the pre-fame Beatles handed out in 1960 (two years prior to “Love Me Do” hitting the charts).
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39. This newspaper from 1936 featured by big news from England.
40. These are the world’s oldest pair of Levi’s 501, made in 1879.
Don Arnold / WireImage
If you’re wondering how they could be in such fantastic condition, you should know the backside is a little more worn.
Don Arnold / WireImage
41. This is a 2000-year-old Roman container of face cream. It was found on the south bank of the Thames river and still has the finger marks of its last owner!
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42. This is Elvis Presley’s King of Spades jumpsuit, which he wore off and on, starting in 1974, during concerts in Las Vegas.
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43. These sandals belonged to a Roman from around 2,000 years old, and look almost wearable today.
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44. And these Medieval-era shoes have survived from around 1200 CE.
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45. This is a war savings bond issued in 1943.
46. This late 19th century ad from a gun manufacturer says children should use a revolver (instead of a toy pistol) as a noise maker on the 4th of July.
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47. And this ad from a hundred or so years ago was offering a gun by mail, no questions asked.
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48. This toothbrush, dental powder, and tongue scraper are from 17th century England.
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49. This is a traveling mass used by a priest in 1535 CE. It includes a silver-gilt chalice, Communion plate, and glass bottle for wine, and leather box to carry them in.
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51. This is the 18th century writing table where Jane Austen wrote classic novels like Emma and Sense and Sensibility.
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52. Albert Einstein’s brain was removed shortly after his death and dissected into about 240 blocks for study — this is one of them.
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53. This is a loaf of bread that was baked in Pompeii the morning Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city in volcanic ash in 79 CE (so almost 2,000 years ago).
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54. This is the cane, hat, and shoe Charlie Chaplin wore while playing his “Tramp” character, circa 1915-1936.
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55. This is a sock, vest, and mitten that were knitted for a baby in medieval Europe in the mid-16th century.
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56. This is the Dodgers jersey Jackie Robinson wore in 1947 when he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
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57. This is the home where William Shakespeare was born and grew up in the mid 1500s.
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58. This Japanese fan is from the 1870s.
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59. This 19th century ad for “Health Jolting Chair” called itself “the most important health mechanism ever produced” but it was little more than a rocking chair with springs.
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
60. And this electric hair brush (which wasn’t electric at all but instead used magnets) claimed to be able to cure everything from baldness to headaches.
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61. This is Shakespeare’s signature on his will, signed on March 25, 1616.
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62. These orthopaedic aids were used by Frida Kahlo in the 1950s.
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63. And this is Frida Kahlo’s artist’s studio, circa 1930s–1954, which has been preserved for posterity.
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64. This typewriter belonged to Ernest Hemingway. He used it in the 1930s to write parts of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
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65. This ring — known as the Chequers Ring — is from the 1570s and belonged to Queen Elizabeth I. It features a locket with two portraits, one of Elizabeth and the other (most likely) of her mother, Anne Boleyn.
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66. And this is the legendary playwright’s death mask, made after he died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52.
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67. This Corinthian helmet was worn by a Greek soldier during the Battle of Marathon in 490 CE.
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68. This gorgeous and nearly like-new plate was made in China during the Ming Dynasty — 600 or so years ago.
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69. This postcard from 1949 gives a look into the period’s casual racism.
70. This clay tablet — featuring the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest surviving literary work — is 3,500 years old!
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71. This oil lamp in the shape of a human foot was made and used in mid-2nd-century Rome.
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72. This is what women wore at the beach in the 1920s.
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73. This shawl belonged to Harriet Tubman — the hero of the Underground Railroad — and was given to her by England’s Queen Victoria around 1897.
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74. This is a naturally mummified corpse of a man from the 5th century CE. Dubbed the Tollund Man, he was found in a bog in Denmark in 1950, and his facial features were so well preserved that he was mistaken for a recent murder victim.
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75. This is a working draft of John Lennon’s lyrics for “I’m Only Sleeping,” from The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver.
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76. This is a basket made 220 years ago by the Chumash people, Native Americans from the central and southern coasts of California.
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77. This is a depiction of the world’s first known vending machine, invented by Hero of Alexandria in ancient Egypt to dispense holy water.
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78. This is the hotel room Martin Luther King Jr. was in the night he died on April 4, 1968. Following his assassination, the room was left untouched for posterity.
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79. And this is the bedroom of Mahatma Gandhi, preserved exactly as it was at the time of his 1948 assassination.
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80. This is the paper James Naismith typed the original rules for basketball, the sport he created, in 1891.
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81. This is Tutankhamun’s dagger and sheath, circa 1370–1352 BC. When Howard Carter opened the young pharaoh’s tomb in 1922, the sword and sheath were found close to his body.
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82. This gaming table was also buried with Tutankhamun — it’s 3,400 years old.
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83. This is Sigmund Freud’s famous psychoanalytic couch, which his patients used from 1890–1930s.
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84. This is what a classroom looked like in London in the 1920s.
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85. And this is what a school’s gymnastic team looked like in the 1920s.
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86. This remarkably life-like terracotta head was sculpted in Nigeria’s ancient city of Ife between the 12th and 15th centuries.
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87. This historical photo is from the 1865 and shows the “The Old Nashville” train, which carried Abraham Lincoln’s body to Illinois after his assassination.
Public Domain
88. This straitjacket was used by legendary magician and escapologist Harry Houdini circa 1915.
Ben Stansall / AFP via Getty Images
Houdini was famous for hanging upside down while wearing the straitjacket (as seen below) and somehow escaping in under three minutes.
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89. This lock of hair belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots’s, circa 1580s.
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90. This telescope was made by Isaac Newton in 1671. Newton’s creation was groundbreaking — it was the first known successful reflecting telescope.
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91. And this is Galileo’s telescope, circa early 1600s. He used it to discover Jupiter’s largest satellites, spots on the sun, and valleys on the moon.
Bill Mccay
92. This is what a tackle in a high school football game looked like in the 1920s.
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93. This is the death cast of Vladimir Lenin’s face; there are also casts of his hands. The Russian revolutionary leader died of a stroke at age 53 on Jan. 21, 1924.
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94. This 1893 ad for doll patterns boasted of having a wide variety of selections to choose from, including Little Red Riding Hood, a dog, a cat, and…a pickaninny (a pickaninny was a racist caricature of Black children).
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95. Images of pickaninnies were often used as “humor” in ads, like this one for panty hose from 1904.
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96. These golden earrings are from Iran circa the 11th or 12th century.
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97. These playing dice are from Ancient Rome and over 2,000 years old. They were carved from bone.
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98. This skull covered in turquoise mosaic — likely a depiction of the god Tezcatlipoca — is 700-years-old. It was made by the Mixtec people, who thrived in what’s now southern Mexico from 1500 BCE to 1500 CE.
Print Collector / Print Collector / Getty Images
99. This golden container was made between the 4th and 7th centuries by the Quimbaya people (who lived in what’s now Colombia).
Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
100. And finally, this wall painting — often called the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egypt — was discovered inside the tomb of Nefertari, the wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. She died in 1255 BCE, so this art was made 3,300 years ago.
Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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