Google Books has recently digitized a large collection of LIFE magazines and made them available, free of charge, online. Back issues of LIFE Magazine are always a treat to thumb through, viewing the amazing photography and checking out the ads of the era. (I saw a great advertisement while flipping through this collection today — Giving a Party? Use plenty of Genuine Ice. Hmmm, genuine ice? Is there counterfeit ice? And who knew ice needed to advertise itself?)
To access the LIFE Magazine collection, visit Google Books. You can search the issues by keyword, or you can browse through them issue by issue. Google has also added a cool thumbnail view tool which allows you to see all the pages in one issue. To do so, click the thumbnail icon along the top; it’s circled in the screenshot below.
