About r/TheWayWeWere
In its own words:
What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past.
Community guide
r/TheWayWeWere (#641, about 1.7 million subscribers) — What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past. A recent sample averaged 22 posts a day (~73% image, ~24% gallery, ~2% video). Its public rules include: No Trolling; Spamming; No Celebrities; Avoid reposting (3 months or less); Images at least 40 years old.
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent off-topic dumps. Self-promotion and ads are limited—read those rules before linking your own work.
How it differs from lookalikes
Prefer this room when your post matches its description and rule list—not merely a larger sibling community.
Practical pointers
Read the live sidebar/rules before posting; rules can change. Search before reposting common clips/questions. Common flairs include: 1940s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s.
The community was created on Mar 8, 2012, which makes it 14 years old. Since Nov 2, 2026, it has gained 973 subscribers (+0.06%). It sits just behind r/lakers (#640) and ahead of r/AskEurope (#642) in our ranking.
What sets r/TheWayWeWere apart
Compared with other large communities, r/TheWayWeWere leans heavily on images (73% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 22%).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026, r/TheWayWeWere climbed from 1,652,193 to 1,661,347 subscribers (+9.2K, +0.55%). That is about 179 new members per day. The chart shows 10 weekly subscriber counts.
Top posts on r/TheWayWeWere this week
This week’s highest-ranked posts, in Reddit’s own order (collected Nov 7, 2026).
- New Zealand Maori battalion performing the Haka in Egypt in 1941, WW2u/Master_Shake23 · Nov 1 · image
- Mother watches her son finishing getting ready for a dance, June of 1952.u/Electrical-Aspect-13 · Nov 6 · image
- Grandpa Knew How to Make a Nice Haystack in 1929u/liveitup63 · Nov 4 · image
- I wish I could have known heru/Senior_Elephant_7570 · Nov 2 · gallery
- This is a letter my Great Grandmother wrote to her 6 year old son, 31 days before she died. She was 44.u/heightenedeverything · Nov 5 · gallery
- My grandmother learning how to ride a bycicle, Silesia, 1943u/ClumsYTech · Nov 4 · image
- My grandfather’s high school graduation photo, 1952u/Shikabane_Hime · Nov 5 · image
- Mother poses with her son for his first communion, 1979.u/Electrical-Aspect-13 · Nov 1 · image
- A party in the 60su/AdSpecialist6598 · Nov 6 · image
- My brother and I, Halloween 1979.u/MyHeartIsAncient · Nov 1 · image
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/TheWayWeWere, from 2017 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.
- Turning 104 this year!u/Efficient-Ticket-271 · Mar 16, 2025 · image
- Manhattan before most skyscrapers, 1931u/liberty4now · May 11, 2026 · image
- Boy posing proudly in his double breasted winter coat, Worcester, circa, 1902.u/Electrical-Aspect-13 · Nov 28, 2025 · image
- My grandmother on her wedding day, 1931.Jan 25, 2025 · image
- My mother wearing her great-great grandmother’s gown circa 1980. We still have it but it’s too fragile to wear nowu/victory_vegetable · Jun 3, 2025 · image
- The 70s Transition: my parents in 1968 and again in 1970u/Yoojay · Jun 2, 2017 · 23,620 points · 1,004 comments · image
- My grandmama passed this month, wanted to share these pics of her. Born dirt poor in rural Kentucky in 1937. She was so glamorous.u/Calliopehoop · Jun 24, 2025 · gallery
- Average American family, Detroit, Michigan, 1954. All this on a Ford factory worker’s wages!u/DiosMioMan63 · May 18, 2022 · 24,855 points · 1,856 comments · image
- My Nana in the dress her mom made for her prom 1963u/bzthepeach · Feb 2, 2026 · image
- My father with his mother and baby brother in Brittany in 1940. Only my father survived; Betty and Harvey were sent to Auschwitz in February of 1944.u/Wienerwrld · Jan 27, 2025 · gallery
What r/TheWayWeWere talks about
We read the titles of 147 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “great”, “hungary”, “photographer”, “halloween” and “photo”. Other frequent themes are young, wedding, inquiring, grandfather, grandmother and baby. Recurring phrases include “inquiring photographer”, “great grandmother”, “budapest hungary” and “great grandfather”. By format, 73% are images, 24% are galleries and 2% are videos.
Popular post flairs: 1940s (21), 1970s (20), 1960s (20), 1950s (15), Pre-1920s (12), 1920s (11).
Activity and best time to post
r/TheWayWeWere gets about 23 new posts a day. The public archive holds 120,684 posts and 1,479,442 comments in total, about 12.3 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Saturday (34 posts) and the quietest was Tuesday (10). Posting peaks around 17:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/TheWayWeWere
The moderators of r/TheWayWeWere list 5 rules. In short:
- No Trolling
- Spamming
- No Celebrities
- Avoid reposting (3 months or less)
- Images at least 40 years old
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/TheWayWeWere have?
r/TheWayWeWere has 1,661,347 subscribers (Nov 9, 2026), which makes it the #641 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 9,154 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026.
When was r/TheWayWeWere created?
r/TheWayWeWere was created on Mar 8, 2012, so it has been around for 14 years.
Is r/TheWayWeWere still active?
Yes. r/TheWayWeWere gets about 23 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 120,684 posts and 1,479,442 comments. In a sample of 147 recent posts we counted 90 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/TheWayWeWere?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Saturday and the quietest Tuesday, and most posts arrive around 17:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/TheWayWeWere?
The community describes itself as: “What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past.” Recent post titles often mention great, hungary, photographer, halloween and photo. Most posts are images (73%).
Is r/TheWayWeWere SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/TheWayWeWere as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/TheWayWeWere?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/TheWayWeWere accepts link and media posts (no plain text posts), with images, videos, galleries and polls enabled. It has 5 posted rules, starting with: “No Trolling”; “Spamming”; “No Celebrities”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/TheWayWeWere?
Communities with similar topics include r/Colorization (1.4M) and r/cats (9.5M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 9, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/TheWayWeWere.