The Pictures History Books Never Showed

So you’re sitting in history class on the first day of school. Your teacher hands you your new textbook. Flipping through the pages you begin to notice that there are photos which you’d never think would make it into a history textbook. However, although there are already questionable pictures in textbooks, there are also those pictures that are so graphic or irrelevant at the time that they didn’t even make it into the list of potential takers. Or maybe the writers were just not smart enough to add these facts into the curriculum. These are just some amazing historical photos that never made it into textbooks.

• Bathing Suit Cops:

  In 1922, it was unheard of to wear bathing suits that were too revealing. For the sake of proper etiquette, beach cops were hired to measure girls’ bathing suits to see if they fit the dress code. The bathing suits could not be more than six-inches above the knee. However, the 1950’s and Marilyn Monroe would come around eventually and change everything with the advent of the bikini. Here is a classic picture of a bathing suit inspector.

   

• “War is Hell”

  It is not only a story of conflict between two countries. During the Vietnam War, many soldiers would write messages on their helmets to tell whoever found them how they were feeling. Some soldiers wrote religious passages. Others wrote about their inevitable fates. Some just wanted peace, man. The most specific message that is paid most attention to is a famous photo of a man sarcastically smiling at the camera. His helmet reads “War is Hell.” A famous photo journalist named Horst Faas captured this photo of the soldier, whose name was later identified as Larry Wayne Chaffin.

  What was the invention that literally breathed for people? Click “Next” to find out.