Skip to main content

Two teenagers bring nostalgia to Twitter with @HistoryInPics

Two teenagers bring nostalgia to Twitter with @HistoryInPics

Share this story

History in pics Twitter
History in pics Twitter

When you’re looking to reflect on historical moments you might turn to a museum or galleries, but two teenagers are trying to make Twitter a digital center for nostalgia. The Atlantic has profiled two teenagers: Australian 17-year-old Xavier Di Petta and 19-year-old student Kyle Cameron from Hawaii both met on YouTube four years ago. The pair have created the popular @HistoryInPics Twitter account, and publish historical photos nearly every hour of the day. Many of the photos are black and white relics of an era gone by, but the pictures are shared thousands of times and often attract attention from celebrities.

While the attention has generated more than 900,000 followers, some critics are concerned over the use of copyright photos and inaccuracies. Di Petta argues, in an interview with The Atlantic, that it’s not practical to seek the permission of photographers. “The majority of the photographers are deceased,” he claims, “or hard to find who took the images.” While the debate continues, the two teenagers have also created an equally popular @EarthPix account to share “amazing pictures of places, people, animals, and nature.”