Last Updated on October 9, 2025 by Matt Staff
The year 1900 was more than just the beginning of a new century. It was a moment when the world stood between the old and the new, filled with both promise and uncertainty. People were trading horses for machines, lighting their homes with electricity instead of gas, and witnessing inventions that would soon change the way they lived forever.
From the noise of growing cities like London and New York to the calm of small towns across Europe and Asia, each image reveals a world in motion. You can almost feel the energy of a society on the edge of transformation, holding on to the past while reaching toward the future. Every photo is a small piece of history, a reminder of how far we have come and how familiar some of those early dreams still feel today. Let’s take a look at 20 photos from 1900.
1. Broadway, New York City, 1900
2. Loggers taking naps on a not-so-comfy bed
3. A mirror selfie from 1900
4. At the farmers’ market in NYC, 1900
5. Demonstrating the size of a Giant Redwood tree, 1900
6. Soldiers from left to right: Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan, 1900
7. “My great-grandmother at 15 years old and her dog, 1900.”
8. A portrait of a woman while she was mid-sneeze, 1900
9. Hermann Rorschach, the man who developed the Rorschach test, 1900
10. Mark Twain, reading in his garden, 1900
11. A rural mail carrier in his winter uniform, 1900
12. A bison-drawn carriage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1900
13. Knife grinders, lying on their stomachs to save their backs, and working with dogs to keep themselves warm
14. Albert Einstein as a grad student, five years before he revolutionized physics, 1900
15. Taking a photo op while on the farm, 1900
16. “My great-grandmother, an equestrian and acrobat for Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1900.”
17. This man runs a shoe store right below the window of a general store, 1900
18. Riding down Central Park, NYC, 1900
19. The last Queen of Hawaii, Queen Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, 1900
20. Getting swimming lessons at Middleland Beach in New York, 1900
Want to see more content from the early 1900s?
Check out 25 Colorized Photos of the Beginning of the 20th Century (1900-1905), or take a look at 15 Strange Dining Etiquette Rules From the 1920s. Finally, if you want to see the wild side of the roaring twenties, check out 15 Colorized Photos That Capture the Wild Side of the 1920s.
