We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about something amazing they found from the past, and the results prove yesterday isn't as far behind as we think:
1. "I worked on a digitizing project where we were scanning governmental documents from the 1800s when I found this doodle of a bird. It charms me to imagine a bored office worker doodling on the back of a land deed."
2. "My brother, cousin, and I were messing around in our basement when we discovered the wall was fake and covering up the real wall a few feet behind it. We slipped in between the walls and walked down this tiny hallway to a closet at the end. Inside was a glass bottle labeled 'Blackberry Cordial' and dated 1917."
3. "My mom found this newspaper from 1936 in my grandmother’s boxes."
4. "After my grandpa passed away, I found a box containing his WWII photos. Turns out he trained carrier pigeons. I learned more about him from those photos than I had from anyone in my family. This is my grandpa with one of his pigeons!"
5. "I was replacing windows in a building built in the 1850s when I removed wallpaper from a section of wall and found a note left there by previous workers on May 11, 1907. We were there on May 11, 2016 — 109 years to the day later!"
6. "My parents gave me a medium-format camera they found at a flea market that still had an undeveloped roll of film inside. This was the only exposure that developed."
7. "I just bought a condo in a mansion built in the 1860s that was converted into six units. During the inspection, my inspector unscrewed a panel in my bathroom and discovered a 6x6 hidden room with an old claw foot tub in it!"
8. "I was repurposing a chair, and when I took it apart I found a picture of Friar Solanus Casey inside. On the back was his death date, and the border was made from a piece of his clothing."
9. "For Christmas I received a 1930s-edition collection of W.S. Gilbert's writings. On the inside cover it has this inscription that makes me laugh almost as much as the comedic plays and poems that comprise the actual book!"
10. "I found a letter my great grandfather wrote to my great grandmother from basic training while I was cleaning out my grandmother’s basement.❤️"
11. "I bought an old world geography book from the very early 1900s. Inside was a telegram stating someone’s mother had died and they should come home at once."
12. "My aunt has a war savings bond issued in 1943 that belonged to my great-great-grandparents."
13. "I found this postcard from 1949. Ugh."
14. "I found a postcard in my dad's old trunk. It was an invitation he received from NBC or CBS for the filming of a children's show in his hometown of Charleston. Just above his name and address was an ink stamp that read: 'This date for white children only.' It made me realize how real and recent segregation was."
15. "My dad found an old steel railroad spike in our basement. He’d dug it up from his childhood backyard years ago. Apparently it was a piece of the railroad that Abraham Lincoln’s body traveled on during his return to Illinois after his assassination."
16. "My great-great-grandfather made this out of his spare bullets when he was in the war."
17. "I found this beautiful nightgown at an antique store. It has handmade lace on the sleeves and is so soft. There is a little patch on it and the tag says, 'Patched and patched, but not discarded. When you have little, everything is valuable.'"
18. "My brother found a prescription note from the Prohibition era where the doctor actually prescribed someone whiskey because they were going through withdrawal."
Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.