Whether you’re a Baby Boomer longing for the glory of your long-lost youth or a Gen Z-er wondering what life might have been like if you were born in a simpler time, you’ve definitely spent some time in your life thinking about the past. For some, the good old days are the seventies, and for some, they’re the seventeen hundreds, but we all fall victim to a spurt of nostalgia occasionally. So, let us help you with this collection of historical photos that show what life was like in the past.
#1: E. Lilian Todd, the First Woman to Build and Pilot an Aircraft, 1909
Nothing says nostalgia quite like a photo of a woman flying a plane. We all know that planes are ancient inventions that symbolize the olden days, especially when piloted by women, whose historical role in doing all sorts of things men weren’t allowed to do yet is well-documented.
I’m kidding, of course, but the truth is that we really get a sense of the history when viewing old technologies. Something about seeing to what point society had advanced really allows us to mark a particular period in time. And this is E. Lilian Todd, the first woman to invent and pilot her aircraft in 1909.