Google puts Life images online

Google is putting a library of some 10 million images online – including the entire photo archive of Life magazine.

Around 97 per cent of the images have never been seen before and about two million of the them are already available to view through Google's image search. The rest will be posted in the next few months.

The Life library includes some of the iconic images of the 20th Century, including the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima during the Second World War.

The collection will contain other archives, including that of Henry Luce, former publisher of Time magazine. There are images of New York going back to the 1880s, Hugo Jaeger's pictures of life in Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1944 and all Time magazine covers as well.

You can search for Life pictures by adding the term source: Life to the search box. The magazine, which became famous for its photojournalism, folded in 2007 after 124 years.

Framed photographs from the archive can be bought (in the US at least) for around $80 (£ 51).