While we might never find a time machine that transports us back to a simpler time, photographs have the same effect, giving us a visual and emotional glimpse of a time we’d never witness otherwise. With photography rising to prominence in the mid-to-late 1800s, the world was no longer captured through the tedious process of painting or drawing, but captured in a flash and now available for us to witness the progression of our state from the late 1800s to now.

1. The State Capitol Building in 1880, not too long after it was first built in 1833.
Wikimedia Commons / Albert Barden
2. The UNC Chapel Hill baseball team in 1885, wow how the uniforms have changed!
Wikimedia Commons
3. Freshman at NCSU on their first day, wow, look at those hats and attire! Photo from 1889
Wikimedia Commons
4. Soldiers stand next to a gun at Fort Fisher, 1865
Wikimedia Commons / Kkmurray
5. 1887, photo of a water tower in Raleigh
Wikimedia Commons
6. An elderly woman peels potatoes next to what's believed to be her granddaughter. 1897.
Wikimedia Commons / Library of Congress
7. State Treasurer's Office in the Capitol Building, 1890's.
Wikimedia Commons

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8. "Planting the first fruit tree on the Experimental Farm of the North Carolina State Horticultural Society, Southern Pines, North Carolina, April 4, 1895."
Wikimedia Commons
9. Old barber shop in Durham from the early 1900's.
Wikimedia Commons
10. Blue Ridge Mountains from 1911.
Wikimedia Commons
11. Roads being built in the mountains in the 1920s, crazy to think of the long, tedious process it took for the roads we drive on today.
Wikimedia Commons
12. And to continue that thought...wow! 1920
Wikimedia Commons / North Carolina State Highway Commission
13. Big Kennakeet Crew, North Carolina coast, 1900-1903.
Wikimedia Commons / State Archives of North Carolina
14. Trekking across the river during road construction in 1922. Wow!
Wikimedia Commons / North Carolina State Highway Commission

How neat is that! Do you have any great sources for old photographs you’d like to share? Any images that surprised you? Which ones were your favorites?

For another peak into the North Carolina past, these old photos of our tobacco industry are stunning.

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