The spooky images of Victorian mothers hiding as their babies posed

A photographer's long-lost collection of images of mothers

Professional photographer Ken Heyman discovered a 50-year-old box of photos labeled "Mothers" in his storage unit, with images depicting various mothers with their children in touching, candid scenes. Check out the finest of the group with this gallery.

'Migrant Mother' (1936) captured the tragic reality of the Great Depression

Taken by Dorothea Lange, the image shows a mother in tattered clothes looking distressed while her children cling to her. At the time, the family was surviving on frozen vegetables from nearby fields and birds killed by the children.

Mary Cassatt's 'The Child's Bath' was a rare sight for 19th-century art

Drs. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker note that this portrait of an intimate moment between mother and daughter might have been out of place in 1893, but that its subject matter alludes to spiritual images from the Renaissance or Baroque periods.

Photography helped eradicate US child labor

For employers in the early 20th century, child laborers had one major perk: They weren't unionizing. They were cheaper than their adult counterparts. But with the help of a photographer named Lewis Hine, who took photos of children at work, child labor in the US was eventually restricted by law.

William Mumler’s spirit photography stunned and bewildered the public

William Mumler’s most famous work is a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln accompanied by the ghost of her deceased husband, Abraham Lincoln. Other subjects of Mumler's photos claimed that the spirits standing beside them resembled their loved ones. Mumler’s method was never officially proven and continues to mystify viewers.

Siblings surprise their parents with a recreation of a 1980s childhood photo

The three sisters and one brother recreated a professional photo taken of them in classic 1980s garb. They captured a TikTok of their parents' hilarious reactions that went viral.

Why art history is filled with miserable brides

Paintings from the 19th century are filled with unhappy brides. The women are often visibly disturbed by their pending nuptials, sometimes even during the wedding ceremony. This Artnet article unpacks four famous examples of this trend, analyzing how and why the respective artists portrayed these disappointed figures.

One hundred rare, vintage photos of the British royal family

Their power may be in symbol only, but the Royal family commands our attention anyway. Take a look through the last few decades at some of the more choice, unknown shots of the Royal family, from Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

See haunting images of the plaster casts of Pompeii’s victims

The plaster casts preserve victims’ final moments in striking detail—from their poses to the expressions frozen on their faces. This piece explains how 19th-century archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli devised the method long after the bodies had decomposed.

Today's money-making influencers might not have existed without the 'mommy bloggers'

"Mommy bloggers" chronicled the realities of their lives with kids on blogs in the early 2000s. Many eventually made some serious ad dollars too.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

'Instagram traps' are changing art museums

In the creator economy era, it feels like anyone has the potential to become an influencer—if they can just capture the right content. Naturally, some places are better suited for an Instagram photo than others. Museums-turned-photo-backdrops (think: the Museum of Ice Cream) are the best of the best.

An 18th-century woman tricked doctors into believing she gave birth to rabbits

Mary Toft was a poor servant in Surrey who reportedly sought fame and money by perpetuating the story of her "monstrous birth." After having a miscarriage a month earlier, Toft claimed to still be pregnant and called obstetrician John Howard to witness her give birth to animal parts, including a cat without a liver, a rabbit’s head, the legs of a cat, and nine dead baby rabbits. Eventually, after fooling the court physicians of King George I, she confessed to orchestrating the births.

19th-century Americans used technology to try to prove the existence of ghosts

In the 19th century, following technological advancements like the telegraph, phonograph, and others, efforts were made to capture proof of ghosts. These technologies seemed supernatural in their own right and emerged at the same time Spiritualism took off in the US, resulting in new approaches to connecting with the dead.

Many journalists are shying away from sharing mug shots when reporting crime

News outlets used to cover crime with mug shots of the accused. Some outlets even published mug shot photo galleries, collections of easily acquired content that drove clicks and, hopefully, advertising dollars. However, this practice has fallen out of favor as journalists question the lasting impact of immortalizing mug shots of accused perpetrators, at least some of whom are ultimately cleared of the alleged crime.

The oddest shots captured on Google Street View

Ever wondered what you could see on Google Street View if you looked hard enough? With this delightful site, you can now explore the weird and wonderful things captured since the service debuted in 2007.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Hitchcock films thrive on the terror of the ordinary

Hitchcock's films rely on seemingly ordinary elements—like birds or hotels—but slowly turn them into menaces, thanks to the director's pioneering camera techniques. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Some argue that Queen Victoria's wedding started the ripple effect that led to the modern-day wedding-industrial complex

This Vogue article takes you inside the details of Queen Victoria's nuptials, from the dress to the bridesmaids drama. Learn all about the wedding that changed the wedding industry forever.

See a day in the life of an Aztec midwife

This illustrated story follows Xoquauhtli, a midwife in the Aztec Empire, as she juggles childbirth duties during the festival of Teteoinnan, navigating the tension between professional responsibility and participation in the empire’s religious ceremonies, including ritual sacrifice.

Improved 19th-century sanitation meant kids encountered polio later, with worse results

Almost all children likely used to contract poliovirus, but scientists suggest that when infants encountered it very early in life—due to poorer conditions and hygiene—they still had some maternal protection from pregnancy or through breastmilk, so the symptoms were more flu-like.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

The history of David Attenborough's adopted Jewish sisters, taken in before World War II

Among the thousands of children who were brought to Great Britain from Nazi-controlled Europe during the Kindertransport rescue operation were Irene and Helga Bejach, who spent seven years living with the Attenboroughs. Irene contributed to David's interest in the natural world by giving him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures.

Baby monkeys chose a soft, warm doll over a wire one with food

Harry Harlow performed controversial experiments with newborn monkeys, separating them from their mothers and letting them bond with stand-in mother figures made from either wire or figures covered in cloth—both with monkey-like faces. The work investigated touch, bonding, and attachment, and found that monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the cloth dolls over the wire ones in various stressful situations.

The concept of 'screen time' was invented in 1991

Mother Jones magazine coined the term in an essay called "Primal Screen" about children's television habits. Writer David Engelhardt wrote that they were watching “screens within screens within screens,” and that even babies were averaging an “hour and a half of screen time a day...the typical older child, about four hours."

Women in WWII used tattoos to avoid capture

During World War II, Japanese soldiers kidnapped women from Southeast Asian countries and forced them into sexual slavery. But they hesitated to capture married women, a fact that women from the island of Timor exploited, painstakingly poking tattoos onto their bodies that marked them as married women.

Why pregnant teachers were banned from classrooms

Until the 1970s, many schools required pregnant teachers to leave the classroom by mid-term. In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled these policies unconstitutional, establishing that women could choose to keep working while pregnant.

Watch a Yale University psychologist explain his new supportive parenting anxiety therapy

Dr. Eli Leibowitz says that accommodating a child's fears and anxieties—say, sleeping on the floor next to them or submitting to their requests to repeatedly come tell them goodnight—can further their anxiety. Instead, parents should change how they approach fear to equip children to think they don't need parental rescue.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.