Experience LIFE's visual record of the 20th century by exploring the most iconic photographs from one of the most famous private photo collections in the world.

When LIFE magazine visited Big Sur in 1959, the Esalen Institute was three years from opening, but the coastal community had long been attracting free-thinking types.

Anita Ekberg was twenty years old when she first appeared in LIFE magazine. In 1951 the magazine breathlessly introduced this relative unknown model to readers in a story headlined “ Beautiful Maid …

The breadth of the GE operations underlines the great variety of activity that legendary LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt documented when he gained access to the General Electric …

Teenager Kathy Kohner’s real-life adventures in Malibu earned her the nickname “Gidget” from her fellow surfers and inspired her father to write a 1957 book which was then adapted into films and a …

Parks’ photo of Gould bent over the piano in his signature posture as he records Bach while sound engineers hover overhead is one of the most popular in the LIFE print store.

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So it’s likely that LIFE staffers caught many shows there, perhaps even sneaking out of the office for an afternoon movie break. The demolition meant goodbye to all that.

Here’s how LIFE described it: Twice a week a small group of operators leave their high-powered lifts and are sent to be kneaded, pummeled and painted in a flossy charm school in the Loop.

Here’s how LIFE described the painting’s journey from Paris to Washington in December 1962. Surrounded by grandeur that would have done credit to Charles de Gaulle, she had travelled on the …