History in Pictures
May 18, 2026
American families, c. 1850.
Left: Cheyenne people dry animal hides at their camp in Colorado.
This picture is the oldest photo of Native Americans taken on location in the American West.
Right: A Boston family.
Girls.
Left: a girl who lived in New York, c. 1850.
Right: a girl who lived in Chicago, 1949.
Boys.
Skinny-dipping, c. 1930.
Simpler times.
Motorized toy car, c. 1920.
What they said.
Ulysses S. Grant writes to his father nine days after Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor:
April 21, 1861
Dear Father:
‘We are now in the midst of trying times when every one must be for or against his country, and show his colors too, by his every act…
Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now.
That is, we have a Government, and laws and a flag, and they must all be sustained.
There are but two parties now, traitors and patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter, and I trust, the stronger party.’
Good eats, cheap.
German and Austrian troops eat lunch at a WWI field kitchen, c. 1918.
Doing the hard work.
Farmers wash up before dinner, 1923.
Home sweet home.
Old hotel and community gathering spot on fire, 1896.
My country ‘tis of thee.
1,100 American soldiers who fought in France during World War I enter Boston Harbor aboard the battleship USS Nebraska on their journey home, March 1919.
American art.
Thomas Hart Benton, America Today, 1930-31.
Good TV.
Sesame Street, begun in 1969, was the first television program to blend entertainment with a research-based educational curriculum.
Using a diverse cast, the program teaches preschoolers letters, numbers and basic problem-solving skills through fast-paced, repetitive entertainment segments.
Today in World War II.
May 18, 1940: German troops, led by heavy tank divisions and low-flying aircraft, have broken through the Allied line in Belgium, forcing British and Belgian defenders into retreat.
Advance units of the German army are in Antwerp and Brussels, the Belgian capital, and the Belgian king has fled.
Further south, German units have broken through French defensive lines, securing footholds on French soil, and are ninety miles from Paris.
French General Gamelin, currently the Allies’ supreme commander, said ‘the destiny of the entire world depends the battle now being fought.’
He has told his troops to “conquer or die.”
Belgian roads are choked with unfed, sometimes wounded war refugees seeking a sanctuary which does not exist.
In London, barbed wire barricades have been placed around the British Admiralty and armed sentries now guard the BBC.
The American Embassy there has advised the 5,000 American citizens currently living in Britain to make their way to Ireland to board ships destined for the US.
Those Americans unable to leave Britain have been advised to relocate to isolated, rural areas where there is less risk of German air attack.
In response to President Roosevelt’s call to create an ‘impregnable America,’ Congress is taking steps to create a million-man, fully-equipped army, build up the American air forces to 50,000 planes, and begin pilot training for 10,000 young men currently in college.
Relics.
Regimental standard of Philadelphia’s 127th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry.
This unit was formed in 1864 and took part in the final battles of the Civil War, including the fighting near Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which culminated in Lee’s surrender.
Dog of the day.
FDR’s advisor, Harry Hopkins, his daughter, Diana, and Winston Churchill take First Dog, Fala, for a walk on the White House grounds, December 1941.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda