New Life for Life
Google Books recently announced free access to the digitally-preserved issues of Life magazine, dating from 1936 through 1972.
And Annie, the Washington and Lee library catalog, now includes a link to this collection.
Once one of the popular mainstays for U.S. readers, the magazine's issues now serve as a revealing time-capsule of American life over five decades in the middle of the twentieth century. Even the advertisements fascinate.
A reader may browse page-by-page through (mostly) weekly issues or search the entire contents by keywords for such stories as Life's coverage of the death of Alben Barkley at W&L's 1956 Mock Convention.