Rare history: Take a daily trip down memory lane through Getty’s expansive archives

 

 

Instagram isn't just for photos of food and cats thanks in part to accounts like the GettyFlashback page. GettyFlashback is an account dedicated to sharing rare old photos from Getty's massive archive of images. The images come with informative captions, which makes perusing through their past posts an educational experience.

GettyFlashback encompasses more than the Instagram account, there is also a dedicated page at Getty, which you can see here. The webpage includes interesting full-form articles, such as this one about how images helped save Yosemite. Another topical feature was this one centered around music legend Fats Domino, who died earlier this week at age 89.

Amateur Photographer chatted with the curator of the archive, Melanie Hough. She said, "We hope those following the feed feel that bit closer to history and discover something new. Be it seeing an iconic image with a fresh perspective or a story lost were it not for the photographs." While the team at Getty has been hard at work scanning huge portions of their archives, they still estimate that less than 1% of the total images have been digitized and uploaded.

There are a lot of great images at GettyFlashback's Instagram and I've selected a few of my recent favorites so share with you. If you'd like a daily dose of history from the massive Getty archives, go follow the account on Instagram.

(Via Amateur Photographer, index image)