TIL, during WWII, pennies were made of steel instead of copper because they needed copper to make ammunition.
1.This Civil War draft notice:
2.This signature portion of Japan’s 1945 surrender, where Canada’s repaccidentallysigned 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 copperforammunition 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 app:
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 early use of the word “dope,” though not with its current definition:
19.This 1938 magazine report on a new rig that’s essentially a vape:
20.This 1923 world map with the Arctic labeled “unexplored”:
21.These 1954 requirements for being a flight attendant:
22.These cigarettes that airplanes would actually give you while in-flight, before all flights were non-smoking:
23.These 1923 pay rates for railroad workers:
24.This gear for a child coal miner:
25.This 1932 World Atlas, which labels people’s religion in different places, including “heathen” as a category:
26.This old ad for a “facial” massager:
27.This 1933 hospital bill for someone who stayed in the hospital for a week:
28.This 1920s ad for using tapeworms for weight loss:
29.This old 1920s copy ofHamletwhere the owner wrote down the boys she’d gone out with:
30.This tank driver’s license:
31.This 1920 Presidential ballot:
32.These “survival biscuits” from 1963, with the threat of nuclear war looming:
33.This 1963 postcard explaining zip codes from when they were first put into place:
34.And finally, this 1933 letter about the “Hitler situation”:
