100 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1919 - The Atlantic

100 Years Ago in Photos: A Look Back at 1919

A century ago, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, as much of the world was still recovering from the devastation of World War I. Rebuilding was just beginning, refugees were returning home, orphans were being cared for, and a global influenza outbreak was being battled. In other news, the Lincoln Memorial was nearing completion in Washington, D.C.; Vladimir Lenin was working to solidify the Soviet Republic; the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed—guaranteeing women the right to vote; a molasses disaster struck Boston; and much more. Please take a moment to look back at some of the events and sights from around the world 100 years ago.

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  • A woman poses on an Indian motorcycle with a sidecar on a street in Paris, France, in 1919.

    Corbis via Getty
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  • A view over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Sugarloaf Mountain in Guanabara Bay in 1919

    The Crowley Company / Library of Congress
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  • Years of war and famine drove families in Petrograd, Russia, to place their children in the hands of caretakers outside the city, and the Petrograd Children's Colony was formed, administered by the American Red Cross. More than 800 children were repeatedly moved eastward toward safety, some of them photographed here in Turgoyak, Siberia, in October 1919.

    The Crowley Company / Library of Congress
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  • Nick Altrock, clown prince of the Washington Senators baseball team, dons an enormous glove.

    Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty
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  • The First Battalion of the 308th Infantry, the famous "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division's Argonne campaign of the Great War, marches up New York's Fifth Avenue just past the Arch of Victory during the spring of 1919.

    Associated Press
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  • A soldier kisses a woman during a homecoming parade at the end of World War I, in 1919. Exact date and location are unknown.

    Associated Press
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  • A view of a trilithon being re-erected during Lieutenant Colonel Hawley's excavations and renovations at Stonehenge in 1919 and 1920

    Heritage Images / Getty
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  • Art Hickman's Orchestra, likely during its 1919–20 New York tour. Band members pictured include Steve Douglas, violin; Walt Roesner, trumpet; Fred Kaufmann, trombone; Clyde Doerr, alto and baritone saxes, oboe, and clarinet; Bert Ralton, soprano and tenor saxes and clarinet; Frank Ellis, piano; Vic King, tenor banjo; Ben Black, plectrum banjo; Bela Spiller, string bass; and Art Hickman, drums, piano, and slide whistle.

    Library of Congress
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  • A view of Brooklyn, New York, and of the Brooklyn Bridge, circa 1919

    Irving Underhill / Library of Congress
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  • The British airship R33 sits in its hangar as it prepares for its first flight ever at an aerodrome in Barlow, Yorkshire, in March 1919.

    R. Humphrey / Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • A "Detroit Electric" all-electric car makes a promotional tour through the Cascade Mountains from "Seattle to Mt. Rainier," circa 1919.

    Library of Congress
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  • Oil derricks dot the landscape of Burkburnett, a town in Wichita County, Texas, as seen on January 20, 1919.

    W. H. Raymond / Library of Congress
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  • Helen Keller appears in a promotional photograph for the 1919 motion picture about her life, titled Deliverance. She is seated at a desk in front of a braille typewriter.

    Library of Congress
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  • Electric trolleys and pedestrians cross the Shijo Bridge in Kyoto, Japan, in 1919.

    George Rinhart / Corbis via Getty
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  • The start of the Challenge High Ordinary race, organized by the National Cyclists' Union at Herne Hill in London, in September 1919.

    A. R. Coster / Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • A competitor fires his pistol at a dummy during a small arms display at the first Life Guards Sports Day in Hyde Park, London, on August 26, 1919.

    Thompson / Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • People enjoy New Year's Day 1919 in the surf in Australia.

    Library of Congress
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  • Sheep graze on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C., circa 1919.

    Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress
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  • The USS Arkansas, part of the Pacific Fleet, passes through Gaillard Cut in the Panama Canal on July 26, 1919.

    U.S. National Archives
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  • A group of people and a vehicle stop along Menin Road in Belgium, amid a landscape still devastated by the fighting during World War I, in September 1919.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • Ruins of the cathedral in Albert on the Somme, the site of fierce fighting during World War I, photographed in September 1919.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • About 100 steel-hulled motorboat escort ships of the United States Navy are tied up, slated for the scrapyard, in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, on November 1, 1919.

    Keystone / Getty
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  • Stone masons finish work carving one of President Abraham Lincoln's speeches on one of the exterior walls of the under-construction Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

    Bettmann Archive / Getty
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  • Nine African American soldiers from the 369th Infantry Regiment (formerly the Fifteenth New York National Guard Regiment), who won the Croix de Guerre, return home from the war aboard the Stockholm on February 12, 1919.

    Corbis via Getty
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  • A busy river scene in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, in 1919

    Library of Congress
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  • Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary and first leader of the Soviet Union, speaks into a recorder.

    Bettmann / Getty
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  • Members of a boating party enjoy music outdoors, listening to their portable gramophone.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • Alice Smith, S. J. de Crasse, and G. H. Halleran sell copies of The Suffragist in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Bettmann / Getty
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  • The trial flight of the Tarrant triplane, in Farnborough, England. The flight ended disastrously, with the aircraft pitching forward onto its nose before getting fully aloft, killing both pilots.

    Hulton Archive / Getty
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  • In this January 15, 1919, file photo, the ruins of tanks containing 2.5 million gallons of molasses lie in a heap after an eruption that hurled trucks against buildings and crumpled houses in the North End of Boston. The disaster killed 21 people, injured 150 others, and flattened buildings when a giant storage tank ruptured.

    Associated Press
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  • A patient wears a flu mask during the flu epidemic that followed the First World War.

    Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • A night photograph of Peoples Drug Store, at 7th St NW and Massachusetts Ave NW, in Washington, D.C., circa 1919.

    Library of Congress
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  • Boys look out toward Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the start of the Ohio River.

    Library of Congress
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  • Sponge divers in Puerto Rico

    Bettmann / Getty
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  • Turkeys hang in a butcher shop in England, ready for sale at Christmas, on December 20, 1919.

    Hulton Archive / Getty
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  • Two young women who work at the zeppelin building at Short Brothers Works. They were working inside the body of the balloon, photographed in February 1919.

    A. R. Coster / Topical Press Agency / Getty
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  • A young offender is apprehended by a London police constable in Trafalgar Square in London in August 1919.

    Thompson / Topical Press Agency / Getty
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