You can probably only picture these famous faces when they were old, but here they are like you've never seen them before.
Abraham Lincoln
Circa 1846-1847. Age 36-38. (His first known photographic image.)Nicholas H. Shepherd/Library of CongressMahatma Gandhi
1906. Age 36-37.Wikimedia CommonsAlbert Einstein
Circa 1904-1905. Age 24-26.Wikimedia CommonsAdolf Hitler
Circa 1914. Age 24-25.National ArchivesMother Teresa
Circa 1928-1929. Age 18.Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis via Getty ImagesSaddam Hussein
1963. Age 25-26.Laurent VAN DER STOCKT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesRichard Nixon
Circa 1930. Age 17.Fox Photos/Getty ImagesQueen Elizabeth II
1952. Age 26.Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJoseph Stalin
1902. Age 23-24.Wikimedia CommonsHillary Clinton
1969. Age 21.Wellesley College/Sygma via Getty ImagesStephen Hawking
1965. Age 23.Hawking.orgVincent van Gogh
1873. Age 19.Wikimedia CommonsVladimir Putin
1971. Age 18-19.Laski Diffusion/Getty ImagesTheodore Roosevelt
1880. Age 21-22.Library of CongressBill Gates
1977. Age 22.Public DomainBill Clinton
1963. Age 16. (Left, shaking hands with President John F. Kennedy.)Arnold Sachs/Getty ImagesPope Francis
Date unspecified.Jesuit General Curia via Getty ImagesBarack Obama
1990. Age 28.Joe Wrinn/Harvard University/Corbis via Getty ImagesMark Twain
Circa 1859. Age 24.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesSigmund Freud
1872. Age 15-16. (With his mother.)Wikimedia CommonsJohn McCain
1965. Age 28-29.Library of CongressWinston Churchill
1895. Age 20-21.Imperial War Museums/Wikimedia CommonsPablo Picasso
1908. Age 26-27.Wikimedia CommonsMaya Angelou
1957. Age 28-29.Library of CongressNikola Tesla
1879. Age 23.WikimediaFidel Castro
1955. Age 28-29.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesGerald Ford
1933. Age 20.Gerald R. Ford LibraryFranklin Delano Roosevelt
1904. Age 22.Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and MuseumErnest Hemingway
Circa 1918. Age 18-19.National ArchivesFrederick Douglass
Circa 1847-1852. Age 28-32.Samuel J. Miller/Art Institute of Chicago/Wikimedia CommonsCalvin Coolidge
Circa 1891-1895. Age 19-22.Wikimedia CommonsEleanor Roosevelt
1908. Age 23-24. (With husband Franklin Roosevelt and two of their children.)Wikimedia CommonsDwight Eisenhower
1912. Age 21-22.National ArchivesBenito Mussolini
1903. Age 20.Wikimedia CommonsThomas Edison
Circa 1878. Age 30.Library of Congress/Wikimedia CommonsVladimir Lenin
1887. Age 17.Culture Club/Getty ImagesHarry Truman
1912. Age 27-28.National ArchivesMarie Curie
Circa 1886. Age 18-19. (Left, with her sister.)Wikimedia CommonsMao Zedong
1927. Age 33-34.Wikimedia CommonsHerbert Hoover
1898. Age 23.State Library of Western Australia/Wikimedia CommonsSusan B. Anthony
Circa 1848-1849. Age 28.Wikimedia CommonsPope John Paul II
1945. Age 24-25.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesMuammar Gaddafi
Date unspecified.Stevan Kragujević/Wikimedia CommonsNelson Mandela
1937. Age 19.Wikimedia CommonsFrom Abraham Lincoln to Albert Einstein to Queen Elizabeth II, some of modern history's most famous faces exist in our minds solely as they appeared in old age. Just try to picture Lincoln, or, say, Winston Churchill or Mahatma Gandhi as a young man and you'll probably come up blank.
Whether it's because these people didn't truly make their mark on history until late in life or because they didn't assume their now iconic appearance until at least middle age, they'll live on in our minds, not to mention the history books, looking old.
But if you've ever been curious about what some of modern history's most important leaders, thinkers, and artists looked like in their youth, take a look at the rarely-seen photos above.
Next, see what some of modern history's most reviled dictators looked like when they were just kids. Then, see 29 images of American presidents when they were young.
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