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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.

Here, LIFE.com presents pictures made in the Nevada desert by photographer Loomis Dean shortly after a 1955 atomic bomb test. These are not “political” pictures.

The following is from the introduction to LIFE’s special tribute issue, Jimmy Carter: A Noble Life, which is available online and at newsstands. When James Earl Carter died at his home in …

LIFE magazine was fortunate enough to visit Cabo Blanco in 1959, when the club was still in its heyday. Staff photographer Frank Schershel captured the fisherman out at sea and along the …

In 1937, about ten years after talking movies had ended the era of silent film, LIFE magazine—then in its second year of existence—decided to shine a spotlight on the people …

With news of the Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage, LIFE presents photos of the early days of the gay rights movement.

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.

All 800 paratroopers landed safely (including Kuhl, who snapped a photo on the way down for LIFE), despite encountering some initial sniper fire. But the mission itself was an anticlimax.

Explore World War II within the LIFE photography vault, one of the most prestigious & privately held archives from the US & around the World.