# So, if I want to time travel to 1890 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** theater-stage-dance\ **Created:** [May 1, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768 "2025-05-01T19:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/1 "2025-05-01T19:33:43Z")
I would like to time travel to Lorain, Ohio about 1890. I would be photographing things that are not well documented today. Globeville, which was demolished and covered by the steel mill starting in 1895. The eastern quarries in Amherst. Every building along Broadway, the main street. The shipbuilding. I can take whatever I need to get started. So what would a photographer by trade wear back then? Would that be an odd profession at the time? What is the best camera I could take that would not seem too modern? What would be the best form of money to take? Morgan silver dollars were minted starting in 1878 so that era of coins would be good. Each one would cost $30-50 today if I pick ordinary circulated ones. What would a silver dollar buy in 1890? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/2 "2025-05-01T19:53:22Z")
From documentaries I’ve seen it is advisable that rather than trying to equip and fill your purse with period-appropriate equipment and money, just go back in time and sell your services as a blacksmith or use your knowledge of modern medicine to miraculously cure disease and traumatic injuries, then you can buy whatever you need. Just be wary of dangerous killers nicknamed ‘Mad Dog’ or saving the life of a future would-be despot. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/3 "2025-05-01T21:53:04Z")
The first thing you want to do is network with the rest of the time travelers stuck in that era. Most will have already been living in Central Europe for about two years. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/4 "2025-05-01T22:06:22Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > What is the best camera I could take that would not seem too modern? I’d just pick up a camera case from an antique shop, and hide an iPhone inside of it. Nobody’s going to be disassembling it. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/5 "2025-05-01T22:19:57Z")
That’s a good plan up until the point that you need to recharge the phone; then you are shit out of luck. Also, you are going to want to get a bunch of unusual vaccinations, bring a big bag of antibiotIcs, and pack multiple methods for treating water. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/6 "2025-05-01T22:22:22Z")
Take a picture of you and your family, with you. If members start fading get your butt to the school gym. To the " Under the sea" dance. Then grab a guitar and play a song no one knows or understands. Whew. Just in time to go _back to the future_!! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/7 "2025-05-02T00:12:58Z")
Couldn’t you just fake it? You feed all the verbal descriptions of these places into AI image generators and out pops these 1890s photos. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/8 "2025-05-02T00:16:26Z")
People only wore black and white clothes back then. You see that in all the old photographs. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/9 "2025-05-02T00:22:20Z")
A lot of them might still wear the sepia tones that were popular a few years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/10 "2025-05-02T02:19:55Z")
Bring gold. And gems. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/11 "2025-05-02T02:26:46Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The first thing you want to do is network with the rest of the time travelers stuck in that era. Most will have already been living in Central Europe for about two years. They might be a bit busy planning an infanticide. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/12 "2025-05-02T02:31:29Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I would like to time travel to Lorain, Ohio about 1890. I think that was the first draft of a Randy Newman song… ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/13 "2025-05-02T03:40:18Z")
I traveled back in time to 2021 to retrieve a thread I started which was similar, but strictly money-related. I have no help for proper clothing or photography equipment, but maybe advice from this thread can assist you in building your stake. > [@You're a time traveler to the late 1800s. What do you do for money?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-time-traveler-to-the-late-1800s-what-do-you-do-for-money/942546): > > I don’t usually do hypotheticals, but I’ve been watching a fair amount of TV westerns lately and I thought it might be an interesting topic. Sometimes when I hear the price of something on a period show I check it against an online inflation calculator to see if they were actually in the ballpark. So the cost of things like basic commodities, horses, cattle, land, etc. seems to be much less than they would cost today, but I understand basic concepts like inflation indexes and cost of living. I … ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/14 "2025-05-02T04:06:11Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > They might be a bit busy planning an infanticide. [“Time doesn’t way…changing the past doesn’t change the future.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhu-_LT7Xyo&t=42s) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/15 "2025-05-02T05:25:09Z")
There’s a great TV series that was cancelled way too soon about a photographer from that era, called **Dead Still**. Have a glance at that if you need some period-accurate gadgets. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/16 "2025-05-02T12:06:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > That’s a good plan up until the point that you need to recharge the phone; then you are shit out of luck. Oh, that’s not a problem. You can easily use a hand charger (the kind usually attached to a hand-crank flashlight or radio). My biggest problem has always been packing enough microwave towers to make it all worthwhile. It would be easier to use a satellite phone, but launching the satellite is the biggest technical hurdle. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/17 "2025-05-02T12:45:25Z")
No, take bottles of flavored & colored water, and computer-printed labels for Quack Medicines that are period appropriate. Sell Quack medicine. Actually curing people will change History. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/18 "2025-05-02T15:15:24Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > People only wore black and white clothes back then. You see that in all the old photographs. > [@SCAdian](#): > > A lot of them might still wear the sepia tones that were popular a few years earlier. Also, since ragtime piano music permeates the entire atmosphere, try to bring some of way of listening to your own tunes, but very discreetly obviously. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-i-want-to-time-travel-to-1890/1017768/19 "2025-05-03T08:07:48Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > People only wore black and white clothes back then. You see that in all the old photographs. No,no, no…they weren’t wearing black and white. It just seems that way, because the entire world existed only in black and white. And even after color was invented, it was grainy.. [![](https://preview.redd.it/mm1qp7rwniw71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=273846b256d4e454b42ce108ac930cb3463e7c4f) ](https://preview.redd.it/mm1qp7rwniw71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=273846b256d4e454b42ce108ac930cb3463e7c4f)