Page 79 – LIFE

America’s First Big Dinosaur Exhibit

January 14, 2020June 12, 2015 by

Kids today have plenty of ways to “see” a dinosaur, not the least of which is the “Jurassic” series of movies. But in 1939, there was plenty of drama in the sheer possibility of seeing dinosaur fossils in a museum. That year, New York City’s American Museum of Natural History debuted the largest fossil exhibit in the world, consisting of 200 specimens covering a time period of 200 million years.

Much of the collection came thanks to the paleontologist Barnum Brown, who had been excavating fossils since the 1890s. Among Brown’s treasures were a 66-ft. brontosaurus discovered in Wyoming and a nodosaurus, “resembling a huge horned toad,” originally found in 10,000 pieces near Billings, Mont.

Decades before the animatronic wonders of dinosaur movies, these museum displays, which showed the awesome scale of these extinct behemoths, were capable of conjuring a world of wonder.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

The Trachodon was most common of dinosaurs. In the back of its bill it had 2,500 teeth which, like the bullets in a machine gun, replaced one another as enamel wore off.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tyrannosaurus, the largest of flesh-eaters, impressed with a skulled that weighed a thousand pounds.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This fossil demonstrating the 15-foot step of an Iguanodont dinosaur was found in the roof of a coal mine at Cedaredge, Colo. The coal was mined away and the stone footprints were left.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Iguanodont dinosaur had a duck-like bill with a few teeth. The tail, twice as long as the body, propelled the reptile through water.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This seven-foot Placodus lived in the ocean, had well-developed flipper feet and ate nothing but mollusks.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The American Museum of Natural History dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Display at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers handled a fragile fossil at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This well-preserved Plateosaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs. It stood on its hind legs, and had front legs which were terminated by powerful talons.

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Display at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The largest land tortoise that ever existed was found in India. This animal lived a million years ago, weighed 2,500 pounds and measured seven feet from tail to the head.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Is What the Ideal Woman Looked Like in the 1930s

January 14, 2022June 2, 2015 by

The “ideal” body type has long been a topic of fascination. Whether we’re focusing on how those standards of beauty have changed over time, how clothing sizes have evolved or what dress size Marilyn Monroe really wore, it’s clear that the subject is less superficial than it may seem. Conversations about beauty are often conversations about the impacts these changing ideals have on the body images of women and girls.

Twenty years before Monroe stood over a subway grate in a billowing white halter dress, LIFE Magazine described the ideal figure American women hoped to attain. The year was 1938, and the model, 20-year-old June Cox, stood 5 ft. 6 3/4 in. and weighed 124 lbs., though life insurance statistics, the magazine said, suggested she should weigh 135 lbs.

The magazine explained that American women’s increasing involvement in sports in recent years had made them taller and flatter, and as such, “the boyish form became the vogue.” But by the late ’30s, romantic-influenced clothing had returned to fashion, and a “soft feminine figure” was replacing the athletic form as the look du jour:

The perfect 1938 figure must have curves but it differs from the perfect figure of past decades in relationship of curves to straight lines. In the 1890’s women had full bosoms, round hips. In actual measurements they were probably no rounder than Miss Cox but they seemed so because they were shorter, tightened their waists into an hour-glass effect … Now, though, the ideal figure must have a round, high bosom, a slim but not wasp-like waist, and gently rounded hips.

When it comes to issues of body image today, many blame the airbrushing of already-thin models for generating an unhealthy self-image among many women. True as this may be, women were receiving messages about how they should look long before the first love handles were magically eliminated in Photoshop.

Original caption: “This is ideal figure that modern women want.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Detail of model June Cox’s hair.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ring In Memorial Day With These 1950s Beach Fashions

May 27, 2022May 22, 2015 by

On Memorial Day, swimming pools and beaches open for the season. It’s an occasion for sun-worshipers to assess their beachwear, digging it out from the depths of dresser drawers. That desire to make a style splash at the shore is nothing new. To celebrate the arrival of beach season in 1950, LIFE’s Nina Leen photographed that season’s trends for women: strapless and halter-top swimsuits, “pirate pants” drawn from fashions of the French Riviera and island-inspired straw hats. Thighs were in and midriffs were out, as simple suits allowed accessories the spotlight. As for the age-old one-piece versus two-piece debate? LIFE had the scoop: “The two-piece suit in general is running a poor second this summer.”

1950s Beach Fashion

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See Photos From Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s Wedding Day

August 11, 2021May 21, 2015 by

Humphrey Bogart met Lauren Bacall while filming To Have and Have Not, a 1944 film loosely adapted from the eponymous Ernest Hemingway novel. The two began an affair; Bogart was still married to Mayo Methot, his third wife, at the time. By February of 1945, Bogart had called off his marriage and was preparing to wed Bacall which he did just a few months later, on May 21, 1945. Following the fête, LIFE announced their union as follows:

Actress Lauren Bacall (“The Look”), born 20 years ago as Betty Joan Perske, was married last week to Actor Humphrey Bogart (“The Leer”), 46, in the hallway of Novelist Louis Bromfield’s 20-room farmhouse near Mansfield, Ohio. It was her first marriage, Bogart’s fourth. The ceremony was performed by Municipal Judge H.H. Shettler who read a service which he said contained a little of everything. Before taking the vows, Bogart drank a Martini, muttered, “Oh, baby,” to his bride. After the ceremony he kissed his bride and she gasped, “Oh, goody!” Deeply sun-tanned, she was wearing a doeskin beige dress. Seven sheriffs kept the crowds away.

“Oh, baby” and “oh, goody” would remain married until his death from cancer in 1957.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attending wedding reception at the home of novelist Louis Bromfield.

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Lauren Bacall fed wedding cake to her groom, Humphrey Bogart, after their marriage ceremony in Ohio, 1945.

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Bacall tosses her bouquet to an eager crowd.

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Bogart gives his bride a kiss on the cheek.

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Newlywed actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall share a sneaky moment on their wedding day.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Newlyweds smile for the camera.

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Novelist Louis Bromfield (L) with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and their guests at their wedding.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

See Photos of a Young Joan Baez as She Began a Life of Music and Activism

April 21, 2023May 21, 2015 by

Joan Baez is an icon of folk music activism.

From her performance at the landmark civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 to her advocacy for migrant farm workers and gay rights to her denunciation of torture and the death penalty, Baez has championed human rights both on- and offstage. Like two of her major influences, Pete Seeger and Marian Anderson, Baez demonstrated how fame can be used as a platform for activism.

These portraits of Baez by LIFE photographer Ralph Crane were taken in 1962, when she was a mere 20 years old, near her home in Carmel, Calif. “Standing on the shore,” the description in LIFE read, “she evokes the same wistful intensity that goes into her rare but luminous recordings of sweet laments.” Some of them were sweet laments, to be sure, but half a century later it’s clear that her music has been so much more.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Joan Baez 1962

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Celebrate Nurses With a LIFE Cover Story on Nursing in the 1930s

January 31, 2022May 6, 2015 by

National Nurses Week, which begins May 6, recognizes the millions of nurses who make up the backbone of the American healthcare system. And the annual shout-out is more than warranted: A 2014 survey of more than 3,000 nurses found respondents to be stressed out, underslept and — at least in their own estimation — underpaid.

When LIFE featured the profession on its cover in 1938, the career was in a moment of transition. “Once almost any girl could be a nurse,” LIFE explained, “But now, with many state laws to protect the patient, nursing has become an exacting profession.” A candidate needed not only a background in science, but also a combination of “patience, devotion, tact and the reassuring charm that comes only from a fine balance of physical health and adjusted personality.”

Nurses also needed, as they still do, stamina. A typical day in the life of a Roosevelt Hospital School of Nursing student who had been capped — meaning she had successfully completed the probationary period — was described as follows:

Her day begins early. She rises at 6, breakfasts at 6:30, reports to duty at 6:55, has lunch sometime between 12 and 1:30. The rest of the day is consumed with ward duty, two hours of classes, three hours of rest or study. At 7 p.m. she is free to go out on parties, read in the library, dance in the reception room with her fellow nurses or make herself a late supper in the nurses” kitchen.

The photo essay, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was an earnest nod to a group of people responsible not only for the well-being of individual patients, but also the public health of a city and a nation. Their duty, after all, was “to secure the health of future generations.”