LIFE A Story of America in 100 Photos
()
About this ebook
Read more from The Editors Of Life
LIFE Inside the Disney Parks: The Happiest Places on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Diana: A Princess Remembered Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Queen Elizabeth at 90: The Story of Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Anne Frank: The Diary at 70: Her Life and Her Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The World's Most Haunted Places: Creepy, Ghostly, and Notorious Spots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE The Rat Pack: The Original Bad Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later: The Attach - The Aftermath - The Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Bob Dylan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Mickey Mouse at 90: LIFE Celebrates an American Icon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE 1968: The Year That Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Royal Weddings: Grandeur, Romance, and Tradition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Moon Landing: 50 Years Later Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Chicago Cubs: Champions at Last Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Cats Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Vietnam Wars: 50 Years Ago--Two Countries Torn Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Sherlock Holmes: The Story Behind the World's Greatest Detective Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Casablanca: The Most Beloved Movie of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Hidden Hollywood: Rare Images of a Golden Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Enduring Legacy of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Dogs: Why We Need Them. Why They Need Us. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Godzilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE John F. Kennedy: The Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Great Space Race: How the U.S. Beat the Russians to the Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Remembering Kurt Cobain: The Icon at 50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Race to Solve an Ancient Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Queen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The 1960s: The Decade When Everything Changed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Manson Family Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to LIFE A Story of America in 100 Photos
Related ebooks
LIFE 1968: The Year That Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE The 1960s: The Decade When Everything Changed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE John F. Kennedy: The Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Movies of the 1980s: A Look Back at the Decade's Best Films Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE World War I: The Great War and the American Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Ghost Towns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE First Ladies: Remembering Barbara Bush, 1925 - 2018 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Godfather Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Mickey Mouse at 90: LIFE Celebrates an American Icon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Farewell: Remembering the Friends we Lost in 2016 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Around the World in 80 Places: From Scenic Cities to Sensational Vistas to the Seven Seas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later: The Attach - The Aftermath - The Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Moon Landing: 50 Years Later Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE First Ladies: Portraits of Grace and Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Gone Too Soon: The 27 Club - Rock Icons Who Died Too Soon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Remembering John Lennon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Mysteries of the Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE D-Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE The Vietnam Wars: 50 Years Ago--Two Countries Torn Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Aladdin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Remembering Marilyn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Hidden Hollywood: Rare Images of a Golden Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Crimes of Passion: 15 Stories of Love Gone Wrong Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Celebrate the '70s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Explores the Roaring '20s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5PEOPLE Alex Trebek Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Wizard of Oz: 75 Years Along the Yellow Brick Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Photography For You
The Photographer's Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Betty Page Confidential: Featuring Never-Before Seen Photographs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Book Of Legs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ballet for Everybody: The Basics of Ballet for Beginners of all Ages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rocks and Minerals of The World: Geology for Kids - Minerology and Sedimentology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Photography Exercise Book: Training Your Eye to Shoot Like a Pro (250+ color photographs make it come to life) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExtreme Art Nudes: Artistic Erotic Photo Essays Far Outside of the Boudoir Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Photography Bible: A Complete Guide for the 21st Century Photographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The iPhone Photography Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edward's Menagerie: Dogs: 50 canine crochet patterns Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Photography for Beginners: The Ultimate Photography Guide for Mastering DSLR Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collins Complete Photography Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Photography For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Humans of New York: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sunken Plantations: The Santee-Cooper Project Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Declutter Your Photo Life: Curating, Preserving, Organizing, and Sharing Your Photos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree a Day: 365 of the World’s Most Majestic Trees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAstrophotography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jonesboro and Arkansas's Historic Northeast Corner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Command to Look: A Master Photographers Method for Controlling the Human Gaze Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Through the Lens of Whiteness: Challenging Racialized Imagery in Pop Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Oral History of Tahlequah and The Cherokee Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Photos of West Virginia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost Towns of North Georgia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFifty Places to Hike Before You Die: Outdoor Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for LIFE A Story of America in 100 Photos
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
LIFE A Story of America in 100 Photos - The Editors of LIFE
GLOBE/GETTY
INTRODUCTION
ALL THEY ARE SAYING
By Kostya Kennedy
A great photograph tells not one story but many, through what it plainly reveals and through what it suggests. And great photographers—like great writers, artists, carpenters, farmers, clergy, all—see beyond the limitations of their talent, beyond their resources, to something more. Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential,
the LIFE photojournalist W. Eugene Smith once observed. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold.
Two of Smith’s photographs (Country Doctor and Burning Cross) are included in this volume of LIFE, A Story of America in 100 Photographs. Dozens of the others were taken by his colleagues and peers. Indeed, all of the photos in this story have appeared in the magazine or book or website pages of LIFE, which has long been a chronicler of American life. The images trace back to 1850 (soon after the dawn of photography itself, and shortly before the United States was solidified into the Union as we know it now) and continue, with gorgeous and colorful aplomb, into this 21st century, the world around us now. They are delivered here through the decades, each image augmented by a body of text, a story in words and facts meant to add context and understanding, meant to illuminate and open up more than to guide.
If a single photo—and the sentences nestled beside it—carries so many strands of meaning, so then does a collection of photos, bearing a narrative that is at once available in pieces and available as a whole. This collection. This narrative. The Beatles land in America. A POW returns home. A chief waters his horse near Wounded Knee. A girl goes to school in Arkansas. Mr. B hugs a Billy soxer. Dancers twirl. A car travels Route 66, a bird sits on the sunlit water, an airplane flies through the city sky. Moments and images can be small and infinite at once.
It has been said that you don’t take a photograph, you simply borrow it, nabbing a bit of history, adding those hints of possibility, so as to stand, looking forward or back, on the threshold.
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
San Francisco Bay, 1951
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION
You could say it took 65 years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, a life span, if you will. It’s an American story of persistence. A bridge across the mouth of San Francisco Bay, from the city on the peninsula to Marin County, was proposed in 1872. Given that this was a distance of almost two miles over fierce currents, many said it couldn’t be done. It took until 1919 for a feasibility study to be done and an engineer assigned. Arguments ensued for years. By 1930, there were an estimated 2,300 lawsuits from opponents to the bridge’s construction, ranging from ferry operators to naturalists. There were arguments about the paint color too: The Navy wanted black and yellow stripes; the Army Air Corps wanted red and white stripes. The designer finally chose international orange.
In 1933, construction began. Eleven workers died during the building; another 19 were saved by a safety net. On May 27, 1937, the bridge was opened. Sixty-five years. And it’s a beauty. It is (unofficially, of course) the most photographed bridge in the world.
How to distinguish one picture from the many? In 1951, Margaret Bourke-White did it by shooting the Golden Gate from a helicopter.
1850-1899
BLACKFEET MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN
Montana Territory, 1881
MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH CENTER PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVES, HELENA, MT
By 1881, when this picture was taken, the Blackfeet Nation had lived on the northwestern Plains, in what is now Montana on the border of Canada, for more than 10,000 years, according to tribal oral history. They were among the strongest and most aggressive military powers in the area, with a culture focused on warfare and bison. From the early 1800s until about 1830, the Blackfeet had successfully defended their territory against British, French, and American fur traders seeking to trap beaver in the tributaries of the Missouri River. Yet even as the powerful tribe impeded to some extent the westward expansion of the United States, it also began to interact with white settlers. The new trading posts became important to the Blackfeet’s economic and social lives. Tribe members learned about and adopted guns. They began ceding territory. And as the 19th century drew to a close, the Blackfeet Nation, like many of the other Native American tribes, had been decimated almost to extinction. Their population in the Montana territory was less than 2,000, down from 15,000 decades earlier, and almost all of their fighting bands had been pushed onto reservations. The end of their nomadic civilization was near, observed one chief, in lament. When we settle down, we grow pale and die.
THE FACE OF SUFFERING
South Carolina, 1850
COURTESY OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, PM# 35-5-10/53037
In a 1997 edition LIFE, the man pictured above was described as a South Carolina slave, photographed in 1850, who, like other slaves, had suffered greatly before the Civil War. The same year the photo was taken, Congress passed the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, ordering escaped slaves to be returned to their masters and for people living in free states in the North to comply. The law dissipated with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the Civil War, but the painful reality was that life for ex-slaves was often little better in the years after emancipation than it had been before. Many who escaped during the war ended up in encampments that were former slave pens. Not only were conditions unsanitary and food limited, but to leave often meant the ex-slave had to agree to return to a plantation. The situation only worsened in the chaos after the war ended, when hundreds of thousands of freed slaves died of disease and malnutrition—a terrible fate, but one that still was preferable to relinquishing newly won freedoms. Between 1932 and 1975, the Library of Congress recorded the accounts of thousands of former slaves. Among them was Fountain Hughes, 101 when he was interviewed in 1949. Asked about the postwar horrors compared to slavery, Hughes was clear: If I thought, had any idea, that I’d ever be a slave again, I’d take a gun and just end it all right away. Because you’re nothing but a dog.
BATTLEFIELD AT BULL RUN
Manassas, Virginia, 1862
GEORGE BARNARD/MPI/ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY
The serenity of the scene belies the bloody chaos that had erupted here just months earlier. On the morning of July 21, 1861, vast congregations of ill-trained soldiers of the Union and Confederate armies began to move toward this spot in the Virginia countryside. The Union would call it the First Battle of Bull Run, named for a small river flowing through; the Confederates would call it the First Battle of Manassas, named for the nearest city. By this time, the North and the South couldn’t agree on much of anything.
By either name, it was the first major land battle of the Civil War, with some 18,000 fighting on either side. It would last but one day yet leave 4,700 men dead. A disordered attack by the Union Army and a key stand by the brigade of little-known Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson, who here would earn his