from datetime import datetime from pandas import DataFrame df = DataFrame({'x1': [datetime(1996,1,1)]}) df2 = df.applymap(lambda x: x) Issue: type(df['x1'][0]) == datetime.datetime type(df2['x1'][0]) == pandas.lib.Timestamp This repros in the 11/27/2012 cut of 0.10.0 - but not in 0.9.0 release.