Experience LIFE's visual record of the 20th century by exploring the most iconic photographs from one of the most famous private photo collections in the world.

As a weekly magazine LIFE covered it all, with a breadth and open-mindedness that looks especially astounding today, when publications and websites tailor their coverage to ever-narrowing audiences. …

Nov 19, 2025 · In 1937, about ten years after talking movies had ended the era of silent film, LIFE magazine—then in its second year of existence—decided to shine a spotlight on the people who …

At its height, LIFE magazine’s incomparable images and essays reached 1 of 3 American readers. The original prints, negatives, and associated manuscripts remain in Dotdash Meredith’s LIFE Picture …

The following is adapted from the introduction to LIFE’s newcspecial issue 100 Photographs: The Most Important Pictures of All Time and the Stories Behind Them, available at newsstands and online:

Here, LIFE.com presents pictures made in the Nevada desert by photographer Loomis Dean shortly after a 1955 atomic bomb test. These are not “political” pictures.

LIFE magazine was fortunate enough to visit Cabo Blanco in 1959, when the club was still in its heyday. Staff photographer Frank Schershel captured the fisherman out at sea and along the shore.

The following is from the introduction to LIFE’s special tribute issue, Jimmy Carter: A Noble Life, which is available online and at newsstands. When James Earl Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on …

LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen captured the mix of lifestyles to be found in Fairfield County as the newly arrived businessmen mixed in with farmers and also artsier types such as magazine …

When LIFE magazine visited Big Sur in 1959, the Esalen Institute was three years from opening, but the coastal community had long been attracting free-thinking types.