LIFE photo archive now online


I’m very happy to see at least part of the photo archives of LIFE magazine being made available online by Google.

These photographs are an historical treasure-trove, and should be invaluable to writers, scholars and students. I don’t think all of them are yet available, but what there is has already caught my interest. They range from the 1860’s to the 1970’s. A few selections (click to enlarge):

Officers of USS Kearsage, off Cherbourg, France,
in June 1864, prior to their fight with the CSS Alabama

A barge containing sections of the Statue of Liberty is offloaded
at Bedloe’s Island dock in the East River, June 25th, 1885

The very first Rolls-Royce motor car, 1903

A French village destroyed by artillery bombardment, 1916

Migrant pea pickers, Nipomo, California, 1937

Walt Disney, 1953

Splashdown of Apollo 11
(first manned mission to land on the moon), July 24th, 1969

There are thousands of other images, enough to keep me happily browsing in my spare moments for months to come. It’s well worth a visit.

Peter

2 comments

  1. Drool…

    I had a coffee-table book about WW1 from Time-Life. It was filled with photos starting around 1910 documenting some of the pre-war events that lead to the conflict through the allied forces in Russia after the war.

    Lost it in a move at some point.

  2. A month-or-so ago I searched the archive for “marksmanship” and found this. I would love to have it hanging in my house:

    Rifleman

    Ain’t it pretty?

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