GET THE PICTURE!

LIFE magazine (gone but not forgotten) has just released millions of photographs from their photo archive. The site says the photos cover from 1750 to today, but the date categories only show 1860-1979. Confusing. You can choose from many subject categories including people, places, events, sports, and culture, with six suggested topics per category. There is also a search box and a search tip: “Add ‘source:life’ to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive. For example: computer source:life” will yield LIFE photos on computers.

I found over 200 images of libraries (mostly NYPL and the Library of Congress) and the same for books. You can see them at full size with great resolution. There’s nothing on the site about using the images, but I imagine it’s okay for non-profits, with attribution (the photographer’s name is included), but for-profit organizations should ask for permission.

This is a great addition to the video resources on the Web. Thanks to LIFE and Google (the site host and scanner of the photos).

URL: http://images.google.com/hosted/life