alfred eisenstaedt – LIFE https://www.life.com Wed, 11 Aug 2021 20:34:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.2 https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02211512/cropped-favicon-512-32x32.png alfred eisenstaedt – LIFE https://www.life.com 32 32 The Fight: A Legendary LIFE Photographer Battles Parkinson’s, 1959 https://www.life.com/lifestyle/parkinsons-disease-life-magazine/ Thu, 01 Jun 2017 16:00:45 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4794147 The great photographer Margaret Bourke-White let readers into her private experience with the symptoms

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The great LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White was in Tokyo in 1952 when she first discovered that, in the middle of a physically demanding photojournalistic career, the dull pain in her left leg was becoming something more. Rising from a meal, she found herself, for a few steps at least, unable to walk.

As she would recount in an extraordinary LIFE story seven years later, it turned out after years of misdiagnosis and confusion that her brief stumble was a symptom of the onset of Parkinson’s disease, against which she would fight with everything she had for nearly two decades until her death at 67. It was, as the introduction to that 1959 article noted, the toughest battle ever faced by a woman who had seen many including literal battles in World War II, during which she served as the first woman accredited to cover the combat zones as a photojournalist.

With photographs by her fellow LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, some of which are seen here, the story offered up the personal reflections of the woman who had taken the image that appeared on the first-ever issue of the magazine.

“When I opened some medical insurance papers one day and learned I had Parkinson’s disease, the name did not frighten me because I did not know what in the world it was,” she wrote, describing how she learned the name that her doctors had kept from her as they prescribed physical therapy for her unlabeled symptoms. “Then slowly a memory came back, of a description Edward Steichen once gave at a photographers’ meeting of the illness of Edward Weston, ‘dean of photographers,’ who was a Parkinsonian. I remembered the break in Steichen’s voice: ‘A terrible disease… you can’t work because you can’t hold things… you grow stiffer each year until you are a walking prison… there is no known cure…'”

The knowledge was, unsurprisingly, devastating to Bourke-White.

But she set her mind to learn what she could, to look for anything she could do for relief. She learned, she wrote, that she was just one of three quarters of a million Americans with the disease “often they appear to be struck down at their peak,” she wrote and that, despite this number and the fact that the symptoms had been observed for thousands of years, nobody knew what caused it or how to stop it. Though Bourke-White was an extreme devotee of her exercise routine and even underwent a then-cutting-edge brain surgery to “deaden permanently” part of her brain, she knew that the operation she’d received had only treated some of her disease and that there was no way to know how the symptoms would progress from there.

Today, more than half a century later, many of the questions that confronted Bourke-White remain frustratingly unresolved for those who receive the same diagnosis she did. Treatment options, however, have advanced significantly since Bourke-White’s time and new advances are offering the hope for something even better.

For one thing, says Dr. Rachel Dolhun, vice president of medical communications at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, a person with Parkinson’s disease in the 1950s had no effective options for medication. The most widely prescribed therapy used today—levodopa, which temporarily addresses some Parkinson’s-related loss of dopamine, a movement-regulating brain chemical—wasn’t discovered until the late 1960s. It is now also understood in a way that it was not a few decades ago that many different brain chemicals and parts of the body are involved in symptoms linked to Parkinson’s, not just dopamine and the brain. In addition, the operation that Bourke-White received to basically destroy part of her brain is largely obsolete today, and a patient who was a candidate for brain surgery now would likely instead receive deep brain stimulation, which uses wires or electrodes to stimulate parts of the brain. (The physical therapy that was prescribed for Bourke-White, however, is one thing that hasn’t changed: exercise remains a key way to address symptoms.)

And Dolhun said that advances in genetic science in the last 20 years or so, by offering new insights into how the disease works, have opened up a new range of research angles and hope for a real cure, rather than just a better way to address the symptoms. For example, experts are excited by the testing of possible therapies that would target a protein called alpha-synuclein. “Right now, because of those understandings, the development pipeline is richer than it’s ever been,” she said.

Technology is also changing what’s possible for researchers and scientists. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is running an online clinical study in which patients can log on and tell researchers about what it’s like to live their experience of Parkinson’s disease, Dolhun said, and devices like wearables and smartphones are providing new ways to track and communicate about the symptoms. For example, whereas it used to be that a doctor might observe a patient’s tremor for 15 minutes at a time every couple of months, now an app or a watch can allow patients to log data that gives researchers a 24/7 look at information about those symptoms.

These new possibilities are particularly important when it comes to Parkinson’s disease, since the experience of what it’s like to live with and fight the symptoms is very individualized. “It’s a different journey for every single person who’s on it,” said Dolhun. “That’s why we need the patient experience to inform us so much, and that’s why it’s so important for patients to be involved directly in research.”

That’s also one reason why the openness of people like Margaret Bourke-White mattered in 1959 and continues to matter today. There can still be a stigma attached to telling others that you are experiencing something that might make them see you as weak or in need of assistance. But if those who have it keep their experiences to themselves, it’s harder for researchers to make progress toward a cure and harder for others with the diagnosis to feel that they’re not alone.

For Bourke-White, as she described for LIFE’s readers, her fight against Parkinson’s was, to the fullest extent possible, a reminder to keep working and enjoying what her body could do for every second possible. Nowadays, she wrote in 1959 after the surgery that helped her do that longer than would otherwise have been possible, “my fingers are more and more often loading my cameras, changing their lenses, and turning their winding buttons as I practice the simple blessed business of living and working again.”

“It’s not uncommon for people to feel shy about sharing their stories,” Dolhun said. “For [Bourke-White] to share her story so publicly I think really speaks volumes. When we see people come forward with their story, it’s not an uncommon thing for them to say, ‘I really wish I had shared it earlier.’ They feel a burden lifted.”

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Straining to relearn how to speak distinctly after disease had blurred and weakened her voice, Bourke-White, with another patient, was taught by therapists (rear) to exaggerate lip movements.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Crumpling paper into balls, Miss Bourke-White worked to keep fingers from stiffening.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Face intent with effort, Margaret Bourke-White exercised as part of her fight against Parkinson’s disease.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

A nurse aided photographer Margaret Bourke-White during a therapy session.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White did the tango during a dance class meant to improve her coordination.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White squeezed a towel.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White with her camera.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White during her Parkinson’s therapy.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

A doctor explained an operation, here identifying the brain’s thalamus.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Researching her case, Miss. Bourke-White insisted on learning all details from Dr. Cooper (left) and Dr. Manuel Riklan, interviewed them as though on journalistic assignment. “I realized I had been through one of the greatest adventures of my life,” she explained. “The patient’s world was for me a new world. Experiencing surgery was like going on a new assignment.” She asked if she could watch a similar operation to one she had already had.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White prepared to observe a surgery.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White said, “I reached for his hand quite impulsively, when suddenly it stopped trembling. The balloon’s pressure had reached the right spot in the man’s brain. His once-rigid fingers were now relaxed, his hand steady for the first time in 10 years. Dr. Cooper asked him to make a fist, then open it. The fingers closed and opened easily. ‘God bless you, Dr. Cooper,’ the man said. For me this was a magic moment. I knew that in a few days, after the surgeon had deadened the area located by the balloon, this man would be up and about, his tremors relieved. I never met the man, or heard his name, but I shared with him a miracle.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

“Proof of progress,” she declared, “is that at long last I again can load my camera.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White at home.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Margaret Bourke-White's struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Margaret Bourke-White outside her home with her cats.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Vintage Blizzard Photos: New York City, 1956 https://www.life.com/history/winter-storm-stella-and-blizzard-of-1956/ Tue, 14 Mar 2017 08:30:13 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4700245 It was 61 years ago that another blizzard hit the East Coast right before spring

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On March 18, 1956, a storm hit the East Coast, blanketing the northeast corridor with snow. LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured these images of New Yorkers coping with the onslaught of winter weather. Though the images did not run in the magazine, the storm did make news with the tale of one New Yorker who had more trouble than most with the snow.

Al Asnis of LIFE’s photo lab happened to be waiting for the train on an El platform when he saw a man “writhing on the sidewalk below,” the magazine reported.

As LIFE described in the April 2, 1956 issue:

While preoccupied passers-by went their way, Asnis took a picture then rushed to offer his assistance just as other help arrived. The man was a 48-year-old letter carrier named Max Urkowitz who, on the way home after his rounds, had fallen, twisting his leg. He said he had heard a sharp-snap and thought the leg was broken. One man, doing a job that no novice should attempt, expertly fashioned a makeshift splint for a broken leg. Arriving after a 90 minute delay caused by the snow, an ambulance attendant admired the splint but had to remove it en route to the hospital so the patient could be examined. Instead of a fracture, it turned out, Urkowitz suffered only a bad sprain.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Blizzard in New York City, Mar. 18-19, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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King Kong: When the Awesome One Showed His Might https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/king-kong-screenings-eisenstaedt/ Fri, 10 Mar 2017 10:00:33 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4686259 As documented by LIFE magazine

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When King Kong was introduced the world in 1933, TIME described the creature as a “gigantic whatnot resembling an ape, 50 feet tall, equipped with large teeth and a thunderous snarl.” (His fur, the story noted, was made of 30 bearskins.) The whole concept of the film could have produced something entirely ridiculous, the magazine observed back then as well as in future stories about the franchise, but somehow it worked thanks to some Hollywood alchemy that filmmakers are hoping to recapture once again.

That means there have been plenty of chances for audiences to be reintroduced to Kong.

Case in point: In 1952, LIFE dispatched Alfred Eisenstaedt to photograph a screening of that original 1933 film, images from which can be seen here. The story did not run in the magazine at the time—in fact, no record could be found of why the magazine sent the photographer to that particular event or what editors intended to do with the images. It seems likely, however, that what Eisenstaedt was capturing was a screening from the theatrical reissue of the film that year, which was a prime example of the character’s proven staying power in action.

It was, as TIME described, a hit:

Hollywood, frantically casting about for a movie formula which will bring customers back into the theaters, last week agreed that one studio at least had struck pay dirt. After thriftily digging into its storehouse of possible reissues, RKO dusted off the 19-year-old King Kong, the adventures of a snarling, 50-ft. prehistoric monster who saved RKO from bankruptcy in the thirties and seems destined to gross at least $2,500,000 for his masters in 1952.

As most of Hollywood’s producers watched with envious amazement, crowds in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis flocked to see Kong brought back alive from a Pacific island to Manhattan, where he climbs the Empire State Building clutching the beauteous and screaming Fay Wray (now fortyish and retired). There, raging defiantly at his puny pursuers, the monster finally gets shot down by a squadron of ancient biplanes.

That 1952 take was significant (about $22.9 million in 2017 dollars), so it was perhaps no wonder that when the concept got yet another go in 1976, the images Eisenstaedt created in 1952, of a 1933 movie, were used to illustrate TIME’s cover story about the movie.

“[The original] achieved the legendary status of classic kitsch, the charm of which remained undimmed by innumerable el cheapo rip-offs and overexposure on TV. The great monkey has become a pop culture staple in everything from cartoons to ad campaigns,” the story observed.

As that place in pop culture endures, LIFE presents this look back at the staying power of the King Kong iteration that remains the monster’s milestone achievement.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Scene from the 1933 film King Kong.

Photo from a 1952 screening of the 1933 film King Kong.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

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When River Tubing Was A New American Pastime https://www.life.com/history/life-floating-party/ Fri, 01 Jul 2016 08:00:48 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4372350 Sun? Check. Water? Check. And 200 inner tubes? Check!

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On the Fourth of July weekend, Americans all over will celebrate with parades, barbecues and pool parties. But, for those looking for a more unusual way to do something festive on a summer weekend, perhaps inspiration can be found in this photo essay by Alfred Eisenstaedt, which ran in the July 21,1941, issue of LIFE Magazine.

That summer, on a Sunday right around Independence Day, the photographer traveled to Somerset, Wis., where a man named David Breault, owner of the Terrance Nite Club, had turned the nearby Apple River into a gold mine.

On that day, about 200 people had been supplied with inner tubes, on which they floated down the river, drinking beer and, when the current allowed, finding time to steal a kiss. After about 45 minutes, they came to a stopping point, where a Terrance Night Club truck would pick them up and bring them back to the starting point. If they wanted to go again, they could. The club provided the tubes for free, but it was worth the expense: Breault reported to LIFE that his business had multiplied by three since they began doing so.

Though the activity might not seem so unusual to today’s summer celebrants—the “floating party” was essentially a lazy-river amusement park ride created by nature—it’s noteworthy that LIFE’s write-up of the activity expressed surprise and delight at the idea that Breault had “innovated the unique pastime of mass inner-tube floating.”

It wasn’t until 1966 that TIME credited Thailand’s Princess Chumbhot of Nagar Svarga as “inventor of the sport of tubing.” Sports Illustrated, the year before, had provided a little more detail on how it had happened: the princess had brought about 100 tubes to her country estate and invited her friends to join her in riding them down a river, but “when news of the fun got out in a Siamese TV show, people began flocking to southern Nakhon Nay province by the hundreds, hoping to join in.”

Though the princess may well have given inner-tubing international renown as a sport, she must share some credit with David Breault of Wisconsin, an American tubbing pioneer. As these photos make clear,  there’s room enough at the party for everyone.

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Toward the end of the two-mile stretch, drifters became jammed up, snagged on reeds, and slipped off tubes.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Floaters made their way to the river, passing by the circular building at the left, which was an outdoor bar built around a tree.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

The floaters walked down two long, steep wooden staircases to the river.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Inexperienced at steering and stopping, couples often got separated and ended up floating beside new acquaintances.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Kissing in tubes was not easy, so interested parties tended to park in the reeds.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Beer-drinking was the most popular pastime of Apple River’s inner-tube floaters, such as Mr. and Mrs. Bud Klingen of Minneapolis who shared a bottle.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Some took photos despite the risk of getting their camera wet.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Music on the water.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Playing bridge, drifting down the river.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.``

This pair went aground on a sand bar but didn’t seem to mind.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

At the end of the run, William J. Braun of St. Paul, Minn. hauled himself out of the water using a rope that spanned the river.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Floaters were taken back to the club by truck, many wanting to go again.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A floating party on the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin in 1941.

Back on dry land

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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See Photos of a Young Queen Elizabeth II Touring North America https://www.life.com/people/young-queen-elizabeth-ii/ Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:00:44 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4282201 The Queen knows how to celebrate

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In 1957, when Queen Elizabeth II was about five years into her reign, she paid a visit to North America, complete with all the pomp and circumstance one might expect of a royal tour. She met with President Eisenhower and Vice-President Nixon; visited her subjects in Canada, where she opened a session of the country’s parliament; visited Jamestown, Va., site of the first permanent British settlement in America; and took in her very first American college football game, in which Maryland beat North Carolina. (Her take: “My, it’s exciting!”)

The visit wasn’t all parties. Coming in the midst of the Cold War, the alliance between the U.S. and Britain was as crucial as ever. As LIFE noted, the Queen’s visit coincided with another by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who was in Washington for “urgent policy talks” about Soviet accusations that the U.S. and Turkey were planning to attack Russian-armed Syria.

More than 60 years later, that alliance remains strong and so does the urge to celebrate.

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

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their 1957 North America tour.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth II, 1957

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth at College Park’s Byrd Stadium during her 1957 North American tour.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth at College Park’s Byrd Stadium during her 1957 North American tour.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: “Close-up is provided as teams, Maryland, right, line up. Queen (center) is almost on scrimmage line.”

Hank Walker The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: “Absorbed spectator, the Queen turns to question [University of Maryland President] Elkins. At right is Governor McKeldin.”

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: “Accompanied by the President and met at the door by Mrs. Eisenhower, Elizabeth and Philip arrive at the White House for their four-day-stay.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth with Richard Nixon during her North American tour, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth II (L), Vice President Richard M. Nixon (C), and Prince Philip (2R), during a luncheon for the Queen during her North American tour in 1957.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth, Richard Nixon, Mrs. Eisenhower, and Prince Philip in Washington D.C. during the Queen’s North American tour in 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth with U.K. Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd during her North American tour in 1957.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth visiting Jamestown, Va. Replica of colonists’ ship “Susan Constant” in the background.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: “With `Parson,’ Queen visits James Fort Church replica.”

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: ” Decorated girl scout, Jennifer Ankers, gets notice. `You have a lot of medals,’ said Philip. `Six,’ she replied. In back is Governor Thomas Stanley.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Original caption: “Mock prisoners, locked in the stocks for her edification, amuse the Queen. `Does it hurt?’ she asked, while Philip inquired, `Do they throw rotten eggs at you?’ The prisoners replied, `No.'”

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during their North American tour in 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and [Governor General of Canada] Vincent Massey during the Queen’s North American tour in 1957.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their visit to Williamsburg, 1957.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth during her North American tour, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 North America tour.

Queen Elizabeth during her North American tour, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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See Breathtaking Photos of the Galapagos Islands on the Anniversary of Darwin’s Voyage https://www.life.com/destinations/galapagos-islands/ Tue, 15 Sep 2015 09:38:39 +0000 http://time.com/?p=4031585 On Sept. 15, 1835, Charles Darwin and the H.M.S. Beagle arrived at the Galapagos Islands

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The pristine wildlife of the Galapagos Islands, which are located nearly 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, has long appealed to tourists with an eye for nature. In recent years, the number of such visitors has steadily increased: there were 200,000 of them in 2013, compared to fewer than 12,000 in 1979. But the attraction of the islands is far from new. That same wildlife also attracted a young naturalist to the islands in 1835, and his findings there would inform one of the most important scientific theories ever posited.

Charles Darwin had been sailing for three years on the H.M.S. Beagle, helmed by captain Robert FitzRoy, before arriving at the Galapagos. During the voyage’s five weeks at the islands, he observed giant tortoises and marine iguanas, mockingbirds and finches. His observations of the variations between species on different islands sparked the idea that would lead to his theories of evolution and natural selection, published more than two decades later in On the Origin of Species.

When LIFE sent photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt to photograph the islands in 1957, his camera found many of the same species Darwin had written about. In a lengthy essay accompanying Eisenstaedt’s photographs, LIFE summarized Darwin’s amazement upon finally embarking on the most anticipated leg of his journey:

The Beagle arrived on Sept. 15, and Darwin gazed with awe at the forbidding scene black basaltic mountains, pitted, cratered, blistered, seamed with lava flows, littered with slag heaps, strewn with cinders, parched and prostrate beneath a smoldering, sullen sky. To his eyes the landscape suggested “what we might imagine the cultivated parts of the Infernal regions to be.”

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

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: ” A giant tortoise, sensing danger, draws in its head with a hiss of alarm. It weighs 500 pounds, measures 51 inches down the back.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapogos Islands 1957Galapagos Islands 1957

Galapagos Islands 1957

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Sea iguana, Galapagos Islands, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Seals, Galapagos Islands, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Galapagos hawk surveys a terrain in which it knows no fear, even of man.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Brown pelican, kin to the U.S. pelican, feeds by scooping small fish into its pouch.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Lava cliff on Indefatigable Island, mounting above cool, turquoise waters, shows aridity of the Galapagos climate by its crown of cactus trees.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Young fur seal suns itself on lava rocks of James Island. At three months, it has been weaned and has learned to swim and forage for itself.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Lava lizard dines on a smaller member of his tribe, an unusual meal since lizards normally eat insects. Most abundant of local reptiles, lava lizards are found everywhere on the islands, including the homes of men. When angry they blow themselves up with air and spit their displeasure.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Scarlet rock crab squirts water in a moment of fright. Hosts of these crabs search for food, seldom entering the sea though always moistened by spray. Surprisingly nimble, they skitter swiftly into crannies before the winged shadows of their enemies, the predatory birds.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Prickly pear cacti reach tree size in the Galapagos, rearing their oval pads to heights of more than 30 feet. Flourishing across the arid lowlands, they provide both food and water to tortoises, iguanas and other animals who consume them spines and all with no apparent ill effects.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “Coastal pool on James Island is roiled by sportive splashing of a sea lion enjoying a dip. Playful and tame, Galapagos sea lions have held their own against man’s depredations, dwelling in herds on the rocks. Males often acquire harems of about 20 females which they guard jealously.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

A bird perches on a rock, Galapagos Islands, 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Galapagos Islands 1957

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Galapagos Islands 1957

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Galapagos Islands 1957

Original caption: “1957 expedition was led by Dr. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt of West Germany and Dr. Robert Bowman of U.S. Behind them: LIFE’s Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt and Artist Rudolf Freund who illustrated the article.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post See Breathtaking Photos of the Galapagos Islands on the Anniversary of Darwin’s Voyage appeared first on LIFE.

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