Copyright Business Insider
A century ago, at the peak of the Roaring Twenties, a luxurious winter estate was built in the booming state of Florida for cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and finance tycoon Edward F. Hutton. Around the same time, F. Scott Fitzgerald was publishing "The Great Gatsby," a novel that captured the glamour and excess of the era. Flash forward to 2025, and President Donald Trump hosted a Gatsby-themed Halloween party at that same Florida estate: Mar-a-Lago. The party, like many in the mansion's history, was filled with feathers, flapper dresses, and bobbed haircuts. But beyond its opulence and distinctive aesthetics, the 1920s were a time of significant societal shifts. After a war-torn decade, the '20s saw artistic, cultural, and technological advancements in the workplace, entertainment, democratic rights, and more. But while the decade brought liberation for some Americans, there's a darker side to its history, too, that includes many of the same societal issues the world continues to grapple with, like racism, sexism, and wealth disparities. Take a look at these vintage photos that show how people lived in the 1920s, from the societal progress that shaped the era to the simple pleasures we still enjoy today.
