The 19th Century

We all have our favorite Presidents based on how we feel about them as individuals and their particular politics. But do you know about the criminal (or less than moral) Presidential administrations of the past? We like to think that we elect Presidents whose associations are beyond reproach yet that is rarely the case. In fact, some of the more corrupt administrations (remember Iran-Contra?) have been the most popular. Whether it involves their sexual escapades (almost half of Presidents - including George Washington - were rumored to have mistresses, and two were rumored to be gay or bisexual) or outright crimes, some of the more outrageous Presidential missteps are highlighted below.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to remember the ones who made your heart skip a beat. The parents who nurtured you, the spouses and partners who stood by your side, and yes even the exes who taught you valuable lessons. So many emotions are shared every day on AncientFaces, but some of our favorite memories to relive are those of love. These photos of old Valentine's cards, sweethearts, and couples from the past are a beautiful reminder of all the loved filled memories we all have.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. The time of her reign is called the "Victorian Era" and one of the most popular and enduring fashion trends that resulted for women of this era was the crinoline or hoop skirt. Take a look at these photos of Victorian era "poofy skirts".

"It's not easy being green" - Kermit the frog. We could just as well say "it's not easy being a woman", at least a woman in the past. These images contain the faces of powerful women who worked to change the world, change their own lives, help others, and labored with power and courage fighting for civil rights. These women employed their talents and abilities without many of the privileges and rights that we have today. How much more can we do today, thanks to their efforts yesterday?

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was the most renowned soldier of the Civil War, but if you aren't a Civil War buff, you may not know about him. That’s a shame because there are many who say that the Union wouldn’t have won the United States Civil War without him. He was a courageous fighter who was shot in the gut, and as a result, suffered horrible pain throughout his life. His real life "Rambo" experiences put any action hero to shame.

Thanks to smartphones, taking photos is a part of everyday life; whether with friends, taking selfies or even taking snapshots of your meal at a restaurant. It's hard to believe today, but it wasn't until 1839 that Louis Daguerre introduced the first modern type camera to the world - the daguerreotype. Here are twelve of the more interesting early photos taken with the daguerreotype. Some are blurry, some miss the details, but all of them are the progenitors of our modern photo fixation!

There is a lot of controversy about statues on public land that honor those on the Confederacy side of the U.S. Civil War. Many of these statues and monuments - in fact the majority - were erected decades after the Civil War from about 1900 through 1920 (after the Plessy v. Ferguson trial which upheld racial segregation laws) and during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. Who were these men to whom a majority of these statues are dedicated? Perhaps the most interesting perspective comes from Robert E. Lee, one of the men who has the most memorials: "I think it wiser,” he wrote about a proposed Gettysburg memorial in 1869, “…not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”