One of the top buzz items across the internet this week is that LIFE Magazine, with the help of Google, has scanned and archived millions of photographs from its archives and put them online. This collection includes photographs and etchings dating back to the 1750s and by the time everything has been put online (only about 10% is there now), there will be more than 10 million photos available worldwide. The archive includes photographs taken by some of the most well respected photographers in history including Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa .
Of course, this isn’t the first time a valuable image collection has been put online. In early 2008, the Library of Congress put a section of their collection online and invited Flickr users to help them add tags to the photos. Shortly thereafter, several other institutions followed suit and helped create the The Commons on Flickr.
These online resources are a priceless way to learn more about history and culture that was previously only available in museums. Now, people all over the world can enjoy these treasure troves of photography.
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Tags: images, LIFE Magazine, photographs
