I love those glossy photographs that Life Magazine is famous for. Now the magazine has placed 10 million photographs on Google's servers. The photographs range from Margaret Bourke-White's harrowing depictions of the just-liberated concentration camps to Dorothea Lange's haunting photo of a migrant mother to pictures of men walking on the Moon.
One picture that I especially like is that of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865.
On many of the photos, you need to click on the link labeled "View Full Size" in order to see the high resolution version.
You can start exploring here: http://images.google.com/hosted/life.
Another method is to search Google by and simply add "source:life" to any Google image search. That will limit the search to the LIFE photo archive. For example: genealogy source:life.
Even if you don't find exactly what your looking for there's lots of interesting pictures.
My thanks to Carla Bodette for letting me know about this valuable new resource.
This is so cool! In just a few seconds I found a photo of my father-in-law. I remember him saying he was in Life in the 50s, and it was so easy to find the picture.
Posted by: Cheryl | November 22, 2008 at 07:16 AM
I'll second that! Among the pictures is a Life cover photo of my mother
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=eisenhower+minneapolis+source:life&imgurl=20ad843ace11a2ea
I have her zeroed in at my family tree website
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~larsonmorgan/Larson/photos/Melin,%20Phyllis%20-%20life%20magazine%20cover%20photo.html
Posted by: David | November 22, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Thank you! This is a wonderful website!
Unfortunately, whereas the small picture is clear and crisp I find the fullscreen version a little fuzzy.
Posted by: jo | November 22, 2008 at 01:59 PM
I wish someone could figure out how to ask Google to change the description regarding photos "from the 1750s" to "from the 1860s." It's really bugging me!
Posted by: Laura | November 22, 2008 at 02:24 PM
This is great to have these photos on line for everyone to see.
Thank you.
Posted by: Eugenia | November 24, 2008 at 06:22 PM
Hello
I wish they would put Life magazine on CD's like they did with national geographic. It would be a great addidtion for public libraries etc.
Posted by: Richard Schwegler | December 05, 2008 at 05:05 AM
I found several that include my father and his parents in a mislabeled set of photos from the 1940s, I let them know through their feedback option, and they are correcting the labels.
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=5ff17a81c7b7cfd5&q=%22red+flannel%22+source:life&usg=__qAMLWNHQ8PlQ4FzthQAcn5apz_8=&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522red%2Bflannel%2522%2Bsource:life%26start%3D108%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN&um=1
One priceless photo shows our family float in the annual Red Flannel Festival in Cedar Springs, Michigan. My father is the "star" of the float. This is a thrilling collection.
(Laura - go to qoop.com - the site that hosts with google, click on feedback at the bottom of the page and ask them to get their grammar correct...they probably will)
Posted by: Ann Pollock | December 05, 2008 at 11:31 AM