Browse for Math among Life Magazine's Millions of Photos

December 1, 2008

Extra! Extra! Extra! TimeWarner and Google have announced that Google is making available millions of photos and images from Life magazine's huge photo archive. More than 95% of this material has never seen the light of day. A quick image search using terms such as "mathematics," "algebra," "geometry," "trigonometry," or "Einstein" pulls up a host of fascinating images of mathematical people, places, and things.

About three million images are now available online, R.J. Pittman of Google said. Roughly seven million pictures remain to be scanned and digitized.

The photographs are found at a dedicated Google site and also show up in Google Image search results. All are available in high-resolution formats (5 and 6 megapixels). The material is free for "personal and research purposes," according to Google. Classroom use appears to be free as well. To prevent unauthorized and unlicensed commercial use, however, the photos are digitally watermarked.

Source: Google, Nov. 18, 2008; Search Engine Land, Nov. 18, 2008; PRNewswire, Nov. 18, 2008.