“Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.”
I was immediately intrigued when I read the description above on the LIFE Photo Archive homepage. I thought, this is great! LIFE has amazing photos, but how can they have photos from the 1750s? This led me to search the term “1750” and find out. The answer is that they have photos of paintings and engravings dating from the 1750s. The photos themselves were taken in 1900s. So, this is a great resource if you are looking for images of historical figures before the advent of photography. I found this image of Johann Sebastian Bach who died in 1750.
You can also find more modern images. I did a search for “earhart” to find photos of Amelia Earhart. I found some great photos, but the photos also led me to some pretty current articles on the web about the DNA testing of bones found on an island which may belong to Earhart. Another photos’ link led me a site called History and Women with a short biography of Earhart.
With a LIFE and Google partnership, you have a great way to explore images and the stories behind them from one search interface.
Enriching your online experience one link—and one Wednesday—at a time!