This study examines rare historical photographs from Kuwait, dated from the 1950s through the 1970s. These photographs are from several collections, including the private collection of Kuwait’s first professional photographer, the late A.R. Badran. Together they tell parts of Kuwait’s pre- and post-independence history. This study contextualizes photos and captions, written by the photographer, to determine the photographs’ original function based on stories, events or activities that were the subjects of the photographs. The historical, political and sociocultural development illustrated here is comparable to that of other Gulf states, thus the findings may be useful to researchers studying Kuwait’s history and also the histories of Arab Gulf states.