These are the fascinating photos of Victorian 'Banner ladies' phenomenon - where businesses across the United States in the late 1800s would drape young women in the items they sold.

Pics of some oddities that will captivate you.

For hundreds of years, sleeping in a cupboard was the way to go.

Thomas Annan (1829 -1887) was the son of a Fife farmer and flax spinner and lived for most of his life in Glasgow. After training and working as a copperplate engraver, he set up a photographic studio in Sauchiehall Street in 1857. Annan concentrated initially on architectural photography but then turned his attention to portraits. In 1866 Annan was commissioned by Glasgow City Improvement Trust to photograph slum areas in the old part of the city before urban renewal took place. This resulted in the landmark series of photographs, Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, which was published between 1868 and 1877.

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, an author and professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, posted the images on his Twitter page - and even found one of the stony Queen Victoria (pictured) grinning.

History isn't just about the past. By learning about those distant people and events, we also understand what shaped the present.

Here's something to think about the next time you strap on your crusty gym clothes and curse "whoever invented exercise"...

We've worked long and hard here at Cracked to make it clear that the past was badass. All you have to do is sift through old-timey photos, and you quickly realize that people back then possessed neither sanity nor a sense of self-preservation.

Try to look at these photos of doll factories without screaming

Author Ransom Riggs was completely inspired by the following creepy Victorian photos for his film.

Predicting the Past—Zohar Studios: The Lost Years presents the mythical world of a Lower East Side photography studio, founded by an Eastern European Jewish immigrant in the 1850s.

These strange devices were the humble beginnings of the modern gym.