When we see photographs from the 19th or early 20th century, we often picture people as unsmiling, stiff and perhaps even unfriendly. Like people today, however, they went about their normal, everyday lives and they were not only living those lives, they could be quite funny as well.
The Victorian era is one that often is considered to be rigid, but you might be surprised with how much life those people actually had. Believe it or not, smiling for pictures was considered to be ungodly back then, which is one of the reasons why you don’t see many smiles. From time to time, however, somebody’s true personality came out in the pictures.
That is what you are about to see here.
Look closely. The men and women swapped clothes for this picture
The boy and the girl in this photograph have switched hats.
Rather than taking a proper pose, you could always mix things up
This is a photo from 1892. Some people claim Photoshop, but it actually shows something from life back then. Building impressive snow people was a popular past time.
It looks like these people are doing the dance from Thriller. In reality, it is what is known as the cakewalk dance, which started with African-American slaves in the South. Hopefully the exposure time wasn’t too long for this photo!
Here’s another awkward pose
Sometimes they even made funny faces
I don’t think that this is proper Victorian etiquette
What’s the use in being ladylike when you can do this?
This is a woman jumping rope. Yes, it was possible to move in all of those clothes.
This almost looks like it could have been taken yesterday
Some men got busy with making funny faces as well
Some of them even accessorized
Kids did a good job of sitting in as well
This photograph was named “Say That Again And I’ll Dip You In.” It was taken in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1897.
These may have been passport photos and they show the nicer side of things. They were trying to stay serious for the photograph but it didn’t work out.
Royalty was even able to get silly every once in a while. This is Russian Czar Nicholas II goofing around with his family and friends
Queen Victoria herself was even known to smile from time to time, and we have a picture to prove it.
Via: Little Things
Make sure you share this with your friends on Facebook