Page 87 – LIFE

The Special Beauty of the Utah Desert in the 1940s

December 5, 2019April 23, 2015 by

Utah’s national parks and monuments were established a century ago, in the teens and 1920s, but it wasn’t until the mid- 20th century construction of the Interstate Highway System that station wagons began to snake their way through the American West in droves. In 1947, when LIFE dispatched Loomis Dean to photograph the people and animals that called the desert home, it seemed there were still more sheep in the roads than cars.

Dean’s photos, never published in the magazine, capture the future tourist mecca with nary a track in the sand save for the sheep, the shepherds who herded them and the Native Americans who lived there. Though the images are in black and white, it’s hard not to see the rocks as red and the sky, stretching on forever, as blue. There is something quiet about the photos—you can see the wind in the hair of two children on a mule and the blinding sun on a man’s weathered face, but the noise of traffic and industry is miles away.

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

Utah Desert, 1947

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Meet the Organizers of the Very First Earth Day

April 22, 2021April 22, 2015 by

“It sounds as if the land has gone mad, and in a way some of it has mad at man’s treatment of his environment.” When LIFE Magazine reported on the first Earth Day, which took place on April 22, 1970, it captured the burgeoning energy of a nascent environmental movement and the young men and women driving toward change.

The magazine’s focus was less on the pollution that threatened the planet than on the faces of the movement determined to curtail it. Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, had conceived of an environmental campaign that employed tactics, like the teach-in, of the anti-war movement. But he needed a group of budding young activists to organize it from the ground up.

Nelson enlisted Harvard graduate student Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes brought on classmates Andrew Garling, who would coordinate the Northeast, and Stephen Cotton, who would manage the media campaign. Arturo Sandoval, a Chicano activist, joined the team to manage the Western effort, along with Bryce Hamilton to organize high school students and Barbara Reid to coordinate the Midwest.

The paths they took to their cramped Washington, D.C., headquarters varied widely. Reid, who had worked on Robert Kennedy’s campaign and then for the Conservation Foundation, was the only one with solid credentials in the movement. Hayes, who would go on to be a pioneering influence in solar power, grew up in the forests and streams of southwest Washington but focused his prior activism on the Vietnam War, as did Garling. Cotton came up as a student journalist during the civil rights movement, and Sandoval had organized Chicano students and laborers to fight against discrimination.

From a dingy office above a Chinese restaurant, the team orchestrated a history-making event. When the day they’d been working toward finally came, 20 million Americans took to the streets to rally for a more earth-conscious society, and the modern environmental movement was born. As dire as the problems that faced the environment were, Hayes maintained an optimistic outlook. As he told LIFE, “There’s no survival potential in pessimism.”

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

Earth Day staffers, 1970

John Olson The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, 1970.

John Olson The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Earth Day staffers, 1970

John Olson The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbara Reid, one of the organizers of the first Earth Day celebration, 1970.

John Olson The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Earth Day staffers, 1970

John Olson The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

26 of LIFE’s Best Animal Covers

January 15, 2020April 21, 2015 by

As magazine titles go, LIFE is perhaps the most all-encompassing in the history of periodicals. Though the magazine specialized in facets of human life from war to fashion and culture to politics the editors more than dabbled in the lives of our four-legged (and slithering and winged) friends. Someone in the art department clearly had a soft spot for dogs, but mice, lorises, triggerfish and walruses all had their turns on the cover, as well. For their contributions to science and cinema, agriculture and plain old human companionship, animals more than earned their ample coverage in LIFE.

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

February 8, 1937 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Charles J. Belden

March 1, 1937 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Henry M. Lester

April 26, 1937 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Torkel Korling

July 26, 1937 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt

January 10, 1938 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Lane Flinders

December 12, 1938 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by George Karger

April 3, 1944 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Nina Leen

September 9, 1946 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Martha Holmes

September 23, 1946 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Frank Scherschel

November 4, 1946 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by David Douglas Duncan

August 23, 1948 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Jon Brenneis

January 31, 1949 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by George Karger

October 8, 1951 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Burton Glinn

November 30, 1953 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Fritz Goro

December 22, 1952 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Ed Clark

March 22, 1954 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Roger Kirschner

November 8, 1954 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Gjon Mili

November 24, 1958 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Ralph Crane

March 16, 1959 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Dmitri Kessel

June 27, 1960 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Fritz Goro

February 10, 1961 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Henry Burroughs

March 1, 1963 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Nina Leen

June 19, 1964 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Francis Miller

January 6, 1967 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by John Dominis

December 5, 1969 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by John Dominis

January 30, 1970 LIFE Magazine cover

Photo by Co Rentmeester

Behind the Music of Country’s Founding Family

March 29, 2023April 17, 2015 by

If there can be only one father of country music, it would be A.P. Carter. And if there’s only one founding family of the genre, it’s the Carter family.

Alvin Pleasant Carter was marked by a ring of fire—though not the one his niece June would later write a song about. His mother Mollie, eight months pregnant with him, stood next to a tree that got struck by lightning and touched her belly as electricity coursed through the ground. A.P. was born with a tremor that would later touch his singing voice with an unmistakably special quality.

The Carter family became a family when A.P. married Sara Dougherty, whom he fell in love with after hearing the sound of her voice as she played the autoharp. Sara’s cousin Maybelle later married A.P.’s brother Ezra, or “Eck,” and among them they had a brood of six, three children per couple.

A.P. was a masterful songwriter, carrying a yellow pad of paper wherever he went in case inspiration struck, which it often did. But his songs were a blend of original tunes and the melodies and lyrics he picked up in the Virginia mountains as he traveled from house to house selling fruit trees. Much of the country music canon originated from the Carters” transformation of traditional folk songs into popular recorded music, replete with simple yet poignant harmonies.

Sara was known for her deep lead voice, and Maybelle for the original style of guitar picking so influential it now bears the family’s name. When Maybelle’s young daughter Anita sang a song before producers one day about a “purdy liddle kitty cat” they were so impressed that they asked if there were more like her at home. And there were: her sisters Helen and June, the latter of whom would later marry Johnny Cash.

The photos Eric Schaal took of the family in 1941 were bumped by bigger news the week they were meant to run in LIFE: the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But the family’s legacy has endured, with generations of musicians citing them as a major influence. And not just country musicians, either. Jerry Garcia perhaps captured it best when he said, “Whenever I write a song, there’s a little piece of the Carter Family in there.”

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

Considered the father of country music, A. P. Carter, singing and playing guitar as he sits at home.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Carter sisters (L-R) Anita, June and Helen.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

June Carter performing a hand stand in the living room of her family’s home.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

June Carter performing a cart wheel in the living room of her family’s home.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

June Carter performing a back bend in the living room of her family’s home.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of the legendary Carter family (R-L) A. P. Carter, his sister-in-law Maybelle (playing guitar), her sister Sara (A.P.’s wife) playing autoharp and; Maybelle’s young daughters Helen, June and; Anita; singing together home.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carter Family, 1941

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A. P. Carter singing w. wife Sara while she plays autoharp and sings with her sister Maybelle.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carter Family, 1941

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hands of Sara Carter, playing the autoharp.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carter family (L-R) A.P., Ezra, Maybelle, Anita, June, Helen, Sara, Flo Millard (A.P. and Sara’s granddaughter), Gladys Carter Millard, Margaret Addington (Maybelle’s mother), and Joe.

Eric Schaal The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

See Photos From a Secret Service Fitness Test in the 1960s

December 10, 2020April 14, 2015 by

In what may be one of the biggest coincidences in presidential history, Abraham Lincoln signed legislation creating the Secret Service on April 14, 1865, just hours before he was assassinated. But the agency he created wouldn’t have done much to save him had they been around sooner. The original purpose of the United States Secret Service was to tackle the country’s burgeoning counterfeit money problem.

By the time LIFE covered the Secret Service more than a century later, it had taken on a dual mission–protecting the country’s currency and protecting the President, other high-ranking officials and their families from bodily harm.

In 1968, five years after the assassination of President Kennedy, and in the month after Martin Luther King’s death and before Robert Kennedy’s, LIFE dispatched photographer Stan Wayman to shoot the men as they practiced their shooting. In this monthly qualification test, which agents had to pass in addition to biannual physical exams, agents were tested in marksmanship, motorcade etiquette, defensive combat and life-saving techniques.

Agents practiced shooting at the National Arboretum, which was, according to notes accompanying the photographs, “one of the few places in the District isolated enough to shoot guns without passers-by thinking another riot is taking place.” “Another” here refers to the six days of protest that took place in Washington after King’s death the previous month. But everything that took place on this spring day was just a drill, and the few tourists who did spot the agents “were sadly disappointed to find out the president wasn’t along for the work out.”

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968. Pictured (Left to Right): Dave Grant (running), Art Godfrey, Ron Pontius, John Paul Jones. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

The White House detail works on marksmanship, May 1968. Pictured: Clint Hill (shooting), Ron Pontius (standing), P. Hamilton “Ham” Brown (driving). (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

The White House detail at the shooting range, May 1968. The first three agents (left to right) are Art Godfrey, Clint Hill and Mike Howard. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Members of White House detail Art Godfrey, Clint Hill, Mike Howard, Dave Grant, P. Hamilton “Ham” Brown, Chuck Zboril and Ron Pontius practice using 4-inch .357 Magnum revolvers. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968. Pictured (from rear): P. Hamilton Brown, Dave Grant, Mike Howard and Clint Hill. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Secret Service agents trained on both rifles and shot guns. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Instructor and Art Godfrey examine silhouette at shooting practice. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Ned Hall and Chuck Zboril practice hand-to-hand combat and disarming a suspect. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Another view of Ned Hall and Chuck Zboril practicing hand-to-hand combat. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

All agents were excellent marksmen. Most were in the “expert marksmanship” category. Here, Art Godfrey (foreground) takes aim. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Shooting was considered the most important part of any agent’s training. Here, (left to right) Mike Howard, Dave Grant, Ham Brown and Chuck Zboril at Remington 12-gauge shotgun practice. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

The White House detail practiced shooting at the National Arboretum, the only spot isolated enough not to alarm passers-by. Pictured (left to right in suits): Mike Howard, Dave Grant, Ham Brown and Chuck Zboril. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

When the agents were not on the road or guarding the White House, they were training, attending lectures and learning new techniques. Pictured: Art Godfrey (left) and Chuck Zboril. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

The White House detail taking their monthly qualification tests, May 1968.

Cars in the presidential motorcade were specially outfitted with handles for agents, bulletproof tires and electronic communications. The car at rear is a newer model to replace the vintage 1950s Cadillac follow-up cars. (Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Portrait of a Working Mother in the 1950s

March 8, 2022April 13, 2015 by

In 1956, just 16% of women with children under 6 worked outside the home, but twenty-seven-year-old Jennie Magill of Hammond, Ind., was one of them. When LIFE Magazine published a special double issue on “The American Woman: Her Achievements and Her Troubles,” the editors selected Magill for its cover. Smiling lovingly at her child, who smiles adoringly back, Magill was introduced to America as the face of that rare specimen, the “Working Mother.”

For historical context, this was seven years before the Equal Pay Act prohibited sex-based wage discrimination and The Feminine Mystique exposed the plight of the joyless housewife. It was more than a decade before the Equal Rights Amendment and long before the idea of equal pay for equal work became a rallying cry. People back then were more likely to be talking about whether women should work at all.

For many of LIFE’s readers, Magill would have been something of an introduction to the working mom. But despite the prevalent stigma back then against mothers who worked outside the home, LIFE portrayed Magill in an overwhelmingly positive light.

Magill worked in the bridal service at a local department store, and her husband Jim as a junior executive at a steel company. Her job afforded her a social life with coworkers. It brought the family more disposable income. It provided time for her and Jim, on their drive home together, to talk without the distractions of a hectic household. And both parents” time away from home meant that when they were with their children, they were entirely focused on enjoying time as a family.

Despite its unequivocally laudatory attitude toward the two-working-parent household, the magazine omitted one thing: the voice of Jennie Magill. As implied by the headline, “My Wife Works and I Like It,” the attitudes expressed in the photo essay, progressive and egalitarian as they were, belonged to Jim. Jennie was the pretty face, and Jim the confident voice, an editorial choice that may have reflected an effort to make the story more palatable to stalwarts of the old guard.

Perhaps the most telling aside in the essay is that Magill, who by all appearances had what we might today call “it all,” could not do what she did alone. Not only was she “blessed with a loyal, experienced housekeeper,” but Jim “enthusiastically approves of the idea” of her working outside the home. And while both partners worked outside the home, they also both worked inside of it. “We all live here,” said Jim, “so why shouldn’t we all help out?”

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

Jennie Magill with her family in the background.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Working mother Jennie Magill shopping with her children.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie and Jim Magill in the kitchen.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill and family in the kitchen.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE’s original caption read, “Wifely kiss is Jim’s reward for helping with the dishes.”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill at work.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: ” Companionable lunch with the girls from store is lots better, says Jennie, than a sandwich in solitude at home. `Through Jennie’s friends at work,’ says Jim, `I’ve met a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.'”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Her work is a source of pride to Jim. `She has done a terrific job. And when I tell her about my work she doesn’t brush it off.'”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Going home, Jim always picks Jennie up at Carson Pirie Scott branch. The ride home is a chance to talk without domestic distractions.”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie and Jim Magill coming home from work.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: ” Taking over the family reins when she gets home, Jennie holds Jackie, 2, who tests cake which he `helped’ housekeeper Sophia Flewelling (left) to bake. Sophie runs household smoothly while parents are gone.”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill and family.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill ironing with her daughter.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill with her children.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill comforting her crying daughter.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill with her children.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill reading a story to her children; the image is from a 1956 LIFE story on working mothers.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Bill-paying is disagreeable, but it reminds them of how well they live because Jennie works. `It’s nice not to have that lost feeling,’ says Jim. `Now when we see a piece of furniture we want, we buy it.”

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill kisses her children goodbye.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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