Last Updated on June 4, 2025 by felix
Taken in muddy trenches, ruined cities, and makeshift hospitals, these images reveal more than just uniforms and battlefields. They capture fleeting emotions that can still be felt today. Long before the age of instant communication, these photos were powerful keepsakes, sent home or tucked away as reminders of loved ones and lost time. Over a hundred years later, they continue to speak, not through words, but through the faces of those who fought. Here are 25 vintage photos from the First World War.
1. Soldiers loading up onto trains, 1914
2. When the old world collided with the new, 1915
3. Soldiers during the Christmas truce, 1914
4. WWI soldier fitted with a welding arm so he could still help the war effort
5. Factory workers assembling different missiles, 1915
6. Members of the 369th Infantry wearing the medals they received in France
7. Senegalese infantrymen serving in the French Army, 1914
8. “I gave my eyes” WWI Veteran
9. British and German troops lay down their weapons and congregate around a Christmas tree in a trench, 1914
10. American Soldiers paying tribute
11. A WWI field, then and now
12. “Big Nims” of the 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry, 1917
13. British and German soldiers stopped fighting to play football in no man’s land during World War I, 1914
14. A member of the 369th Infantry Regiment holding a puppy that he saved during World War I
15. Eddie Rickenbacker, 1916
16. Santa Ana, 1918, men of the first local draft for WWI
17. Aiming down at enemies in the trenches
18. The famous WWI reconnaissance pigeon, 1915
19. WWI pilot taking a mirror selfie, 1917
20. Bandaging a Red Cross canine medic, 1917
21. Men of Bronze, New York’s 369th regiment, 1917
22. 116 Infantry, France, 1916
23. A WWI aviation oxygen mask, 1918
24. Crowds in NYC after the end of the Great War, 1918
25. Getting ready to head into no man’s land
Want to see more content from the early 1900s?
Check out 20 Colorized Photos From The Early 1920s, or take a look at 20 Vintage Photos Of People’s Cars And Bikes In The 1940s. Finally, if you want to see photos of mechanics in the early 1900s, check out 20 Vintage Photos Of Mechanics in the 1890s-1960s.