This Photograph from Project Blue Book Case 24-185-19-7X Shows an Object over, 1947

Captured here: UFO: This photograph from Project Blue Book case 24-185-19-7X shows an object over Phoenix in June 1947. It was taken in 1947, and like the best archival images it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.

The first half of the 1940s was consumed by the Second World War, the largest conflict in human history, and photography went to war with it — small 35mm cameras and wire services meant pictures from the front could reach newspaper readers within days.

Part of the appeal of old photographs is how confidently people did things that look baffling now. Standards of safety, custom, and common sense have shifted so much that yesterday's ordinary can read as today's unbelievable — and that gap is exactly what this picture captures.