I just learned of an amazing new online resource for still images:
*Life*magazine on Google.

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.

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

Of course, the photograph didn't exist in 1750, so the announcement is
slightly misleading; but there are 18th century engravings in the
collection.

It's quite addictive to browse the collection. You can find all manner of
strange pieces of US history. For instance, the 1958 pic below is of
Tuscaloosa High School boys protesting girls wearing "sack dresses." To
emphasize their point (that the sack dress concealed the female form)
they *wore
their shirt tales out*!

Of course, a still image archive such as this, of a popular magazine, also
offers all sorts of possibilities for studying popular culture -- especially
film/TV star images. See, for example, the photo of Margaret Sullavan below.

The key to the new resource is to add "source:life" (no quotation marks) to
any search.

<http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=Tuscaloosa+source:life&imgurl=231298a6fe8f9a05>

Actress Margaret Sullavan memorizing her lines in a bare rehearsal hall for
a new TV series.
Date taken:    November 1951

<http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=%22Margaret+Sullavan%22+source:life&imgurl=5b11816ed225c22d>
-- 
Jeremy Butler

www.ScreenLex.org
www.ScreenSite.org
www.TVCrit.com
www.ShotLogger.org
www.AllThingsAcoustic.org

Professor - TCF Dept. - U Alabama

----
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