Imagine walking down a city street a hundred years ago. The sound of horse hooves still mixed with new car engines, storefront windows advertised products you’ve never heard of, and nearly everyone was dressed in clothes that would turn heads today. The early and mid-1920s were a fascinating in-between period, where old traditions hadn’t quite disappeared, but the modern world was beginning to emerge around every corner.
Some of these photos reveal bustling downtowns filled with life, while others preserve quiet moments that would have seemed completely ordinary at the time. Looking through them feels less like studying the past and more like borrowing someone else’s memories, offering a rare chance to see the 1920s through the eyes of the people who actually lived it.
Let’s take a look at 35 vintage images of the early to mid-1920s.
1. A young boy playing the banjo with his dog, 1920
2. This daredevil is balancing 20 stories high, 1920
3. Three women in an office in Colorado, 1920
4. World War I amputee fitted with a welding arm, 1920
5. 8-year-old Chess prodigy Samual Reshevsky defeating 8 Chess masters at the same time, 1920
6. Wheat companies using floral print on their sacks so women can make dresses with them, 1920
7. A car crash in 1921
8. The Babe on his visit to the White House, 1921
9. Female moonshiners, 1921
10. The artist Monet in his garden, 1921
11. 18-year-old inventor, H. Day, wearing headphones attached under his top hat, 1922
12. Sharpshooter Annie Oakley with a gun that Buffalo Bill gave her, 1922
13. Babe Ruth during his six-game suspension, 1922
14. This portable baby cage was patented in 1922 and was popular in the U.S.
15. A woman being arrested for showing too much skin in Chicago, 1922
16. Racing cars on the roof of the Fiat factory, 1923
17. Ernest Hemingway’s passport photo, 1923
18. Testing a bulletproof vest, 1923
19. Woman wearing a dress made of nearly worthless hyperinflated German currency, 1923
20. A police man stops traffic to let a cat and her kitten cross the street, 1923
21. The Great Paris Flood, 1924
22. Babe Ruth lying unconscious after running into a wall chasing a fly ball, 1924
23. Chef Bouardee, also known as Hector Boiardi, 1924
24. Beatrice Kyle would dive from 100 feet high into just 8-foot deep tanks
25. 3 friends on a joyride in their new vehicle, 1924
26. The St. Louis Cotton Club Band, 1925
27. This is what mugshots looked like in 1925
28. Greta Garbo next to the MGM lion, 1925
29. An immigrant family looking out at New York’s skyline, 1925
30. An office Christmas party in 1925
31. The Michelin Man with an advertising vehicle in Santa Clara, 1926
32. Unharnessed workers in New York City, 1926
33. Stone Mountain, Georgia, 1926
34. A federal agent inspecting a fake lumber truck full of liquor during prohibition, 1926
35. This is what mobile houses looked like in 1926
Want to see more early 1900s content?
Check out 25 Colorized Photos From The Late 1910s, or take a look at 20 Colorized Photos of Soldiers in the 1910s. Finally, if you want to look into the First World War, check out 25 Vintage Photos From The First World War.