"To see Life; see the world"

I was so excited to hear that Google and Life magazine have joined to scan and post all of the magazine's issues online for us to see!

You can peruse the magazine in its original format. I love reading old magazines--everything from the copy (captions in the case of Life) to the advertisements. It was such a different time, and it's fun to be transported back, even though they're being read on my shiny new 21st-century laptop. Thrill of the musty paper smell aside, this is a pretty cool way to dive into history.

Years and years later, they're somehow just as interesting as they were to their contemporary readers. History rules.

I took a class on the history of photography in grad school, and learned about the tremendous contributions the staff at Life made to photojournalism and also publishing in general. It was the first all photography news magazine and dominated the market, selling more than 13.6 million copies weekly at a dime a piece. Some of the world's most iconic images come from Life photographers, like this or this or this or this.

Hard to believe that before this magazine, there wasn't a whole lot of access to photography for American readers.

The collection comprises more than 1,860 issues, covering 1936-1972.

And to think that I might have been productive today.....