National Geographic has been the pinnacle of photography for 125 years now. They have continued to set the standard for inspiring the world with their photographs. For the longest time Nat Geo was one of the only ways the world was able to visually share each others cultures. Its fascinating to see how society has changed over the century. Here we look back these beautiful shots from the past 125 years. Thank you Nat Geo for revolutionizing photography.
Tourists admire the beauty and size of the Washington Monument, April 1935.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JACOB J. GAYER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A woman holds three seven-month old mountain lion kittens in Arizona.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CLIFTON R. ADAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Many methods were tried, some unorthodox, in an effort to lure the Loch Ness monster into camera range. Here brave divers execute a baiting using cow’s blood and a bait basket trolled at a 60-foot depth.
PHOTOGRAPH BY EMORY KRISTOF, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
An attendant feeds a dolphin during a performance at Marineland in Florida, November 1952.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Man looks out on the Eiffel Tower.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CLIFTON R. ADAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Malays in traditional dress dance for guests at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, August 1966.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WINFIELD PARKS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Red sailed wood sailboats travel the winding Turag River in Bangladesh, September 1972.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DICK DURRANCE II, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A milkman and his terrier pose at the back of a milk truck, May 1948.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MELVILLE B. GROSVENOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Museum tourists admire an enormous carving of Pharaoh Ramses II in Egypt, April 1991.
PHOTOGRAPH BY O. LEWIS MAZZATENTA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Annie Oakley’s niece shows off mementos to woman costumed as Annie in Greenville, Ohio, April 1955.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BATES LITTLEHALES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A Burchell’s zebra at rest in the African terrain. From a March 1909 article about President Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming hunting trip to Kenya.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL E. AKELEY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Shan man and two priests prepare to set off bamboo rockets in rain, Myanmar, November 1931.
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. ROBERT MOORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Woman holds plate containing new grain sprouts to celebrate the new year in Tehran, Iran, March 1947.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A female musher participates in a dog sled race through Nome, Alaska, March 1919. Read January’s “Into the Unknown” for an in-depth experience of what dog sledding exploration was like in the early 1900s.
PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS A. ROSS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Armed Bedouin Beni Sakhr chiefs await their king’s visit in Jordan, December 1964.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Boys boxing in Washington D.C.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ORREN R. LOUDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A view of a bathing ghat on the shores of the Ganges River in India, 1923.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JULES GERVAIS COURTELLEMONT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Former soldiers study cake decorating at a vocational school in Puerto Rico, April 1951.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN LOCKE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A portrait of a woman riding an ostrich in South Africa, August 1942.
PHOTOGRAPH BY W. ROBERT MOORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Portrait of a Sudanese woman from Kodak (Egypt) Ltd., purchased abroad by Maynard Owen Williams, 1920.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KODAK LTD.
Teenagers run and play on large white sand dunes in New Mexico, 1957.
PHOTOGRAPH BY J. BAYLOR ROBERTS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Cars parked at a drive-in theater with a 53-foot wide screen in Alexandria, Virginia, December 1941.
PHOTOGRAPH BY J. BAYLOR ROBERTS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Pilgrims bathe in the Narmada’s 160-foot-tall Kadil Dhara waterfall in India, November 1988.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES P. BLAIR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A close-up portrait of a coal miner in Omar, West Virginia, 1938.
PHOTOGRAPH BY B. ANTHONY STEWART, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A group of dancers perform at the Mississippi State College for Women, 1937.
PHOTOGRAPH BY J. BAYLOR ROBERTS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A female worker helps insulate wires on a large generator in Czechoslovakia, February 1968.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES P. BLAIR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Reading the news in France.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Peasant takes up collection for new church donning keg and cow horn in Austria, November 1932.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS HILDENBRAND, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Children cool off from summer heat outside a Connecticut firehouse, April 1935.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
The Johanneskirche Protestant Church reflects on the water in Stuttgart, Germany, August 1928.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS HILDENBRAND, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Two girls wearing shawls pose for a portrait in Huwara, Palestine, 1926.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Bengal tigers crouch as animal trainer carries a 300-pound lion in Moscow, March 1966.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEAN CONGER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Campers prepare a meal beneath sea grape trees. Cinnamon Bay, Virgin Islands, 1968.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES L. STANFIELD, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A girl feeds her pet bear in Riggins, Idaho.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Motorcycle club members wear studded leather jackets and rakish caps in London, England, June 1966.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES P. BLAIR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A view of the Taj Mahal on the Jumna River, 1923.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JULES GERVAIS COURTELLEMONT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
On assignment in Denmark, 1947.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Dancing men brandish spears and palm-leaf shields in Fiji, November 1958.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A student works at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem, 1927.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAYNARD OWEN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
A Highland cow is bid on at an auction, May 1970.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KENNETH MACLEISH, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel kissing within a tetrahedral kite, October 1903.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
A cowgirl puts a nickel in an El Paso parking meter to hitch her pony, October 1939.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
People enjoying the Gellert Bath, an outdoor swimming pool on the banks of the Danube, January 1930.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS HILDENBRAND, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Wow, 125 years.. Committing to excellence for that long in letting the world see the rest of the world is simply heartwarming.. I salute & thank you
Inspiring... all these photographs have their own memory to be told...
That pony parking meter shot is incredible, as all the rest. But that one really appeals to me.