REVEALED: John f kennedy campaigning door to door in west virginia 1960 | Rare Historical Photos

In the mid-2000s, historian Anna Pegler-Gordon said that visual media often seems more accessible to her students than the written record. They claimed images make the past seem more accessible, giving concrete shape to a world that sometimes seems intangible. Not to mention the immediacy of the image, which often conveys information more quickly than a primary document written in an unfamiliar, or even a foreign, language. But according to Pegler-Gordon, this immediacy also works well in discussion sections, where the shared experience of viewing a picture can provide a focus for lively group discussion.

Now, 15 years after the professor said these words, we can say that her insights were spot on. Take this subreddit, for example. It unites over 3 million people, and they're all exploring the past through historical photographs. The rarely seen images coupled with the detailed fashion in which the community shares them with one another (every upload includes an accurate description of what is being presented (event, location, war, year, etc.) not only provides a look into our earlier days, but also inspires interesting discussions in the comment section.

We at Bored Panda have already covered the subreddit here and here, but it has received plenty of new submissions since our last publication, so we thought it's about time we made another one. Continue scrolling to check out some of its recent posts and the conversation we had with historians Joshua Wilkey and Darren R. Reid.