The New York Times recently created The Lively Morgue, a tumblr site for publishing it's massive archive of photos. Since the NY Times's first illustrated publication in 1896 it has been using photos to document and share global history, and since then has collected over 5 million prints.
The Lively Morgue gives us a sense of what kinds of photos they will post and where the photos are coming from in their description, "It was an era of bold global exploration to the North and South Poles. Aviation was evolving at breathtaking speed. Russia was in revolt. Pictures. New York took its place as a global cultural capital. The world was again convulsed in a war that ended with the atomic bomb. More pictures. Civil rights were won on the battleground, while explorers turned their sights to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Pictures and more pictures."
In their posts, the photos will be accompanied with short caption and sometimes extensive back stories. Photos and extended back stories will be posted on the Lens Blog. To enhance backstories, back side of prints will also be shown, providing notes from the photographer, contexts in which the photo was used, and other information. The New York Times will even have some prints seen on The Lively Morgue available for purchase.
I am beyond excited to follow The Lively Morgue, to see eras of the past, historical cultures I'll be only able to know through these photos and the stories shared about them. It will be great to learn about things of the past that I would have otherwise not even heard of. Projects and sites like this give the newer generations a piece of the past and opportunity to be engaged and be touched in some way by people and life styles so foreign to their era. The past has been the foundation and still influences the present and should be more known and widespread. If you're into photography, history, or older American and world culture, The Lively Morgue is definitely something you should consider checking out and following.
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