A Mom Uses a Trash Can to Contain Her Baby While She Crochets in the Park, 1969

LIFE used to regularly run interesting, strange, amusing or thought-provoking photographs on the last page of the magazine — and the May 30, 1969 issue was no exception.

According to Click Americana , this photo of a mother and her child visiting the park probably fell under both the “strange” and “amusing” categories: the baby is tucked under an inverted open-frame trash can — a makeshift playpen — while mom peacefully crochets on a bench in the background.

Just thinking what people would say if they saw a scene like this in a park today. Would they call the police? Or would they confront the woman?

Probably not directly. They would just take use their cellphone and take a video or photos, share it on social media and shame the woman. Then the public outcry would lead authorities to track her down and charge her with “child abuse.”

Certainly times have changed. Garbage pails are no longer considered appropriate playpens.

40 Extraordinary Color Photographs Taken by Piotr Vedenisov From the Beginning of the 20th Century

Piotr Ivanovich Vedenisov (1866–1937) was a Russian nobleman, professional pianist, amateur actor and photographer.

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 1888, he moved to Yalta, where he soon became an important part of the cultural life of the area. He studied the local lore and lectured on the history of the Crimea. He helped organize musical and literary evenings. He studied meteorology. He became friends with the likes of Chekhov, Gorky, and Chaliapin. But outside of music, his greatest interest was photography. He became a master of the Autochome, an early color photographic process, patented by the Lumière brothers in 1903 and first marketed in 1907.

Vedenisov’s autochromes were shot over a relatively short period of time, roughly from 1909 to 1914. The scenes in Vedenisov’s autochromes took place in Yalta or in the Simbirsk Government, where the Kozakov family, the photographer’s relations, resided. Piotr Vedenisov chose his models among the members of this single large family, also some of his friends and fellow musicians.

Vedenisov’s photos are mostly staged portraits. Other subjects include everyday life and traveling, feasts, pets, interiors and landscapes.

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Instagram Before It Was Cool: Candid Polaroids by Linda McCartney Reveal an Intimate Glimpse Into a Beatle’s Family Life

An intimate selection of Polaroid photographs taken by Linda McCartney, the late wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, has been collected by TASCHEN to create book Linda McCartney: The Polaroid Diaries.

Taken from the early 1970s until the mid-1990s –– Linda sadly passing away from breast cancer in 1998 –– interspersed portraits, still lifes, and interior compositions affirm Linda’s bold eye for pattern, texture, color, and an elegant use of light. The photographs focus on her distinctive way of seeing the world through charming and quirky portraits of Paul and the couple’s four children. We see them pulling faces and in matching pyjamas. Rare moments include son James pouring water on himself, and Mary and Stella playing dress-up. There’s dancing, eating, horse riding, and countless moments of everyday life on their farm in Southern England.

The images, seemingly random, are flawlessly composed, revealing a unique artistic sensibility. As Paul says in the introduction:

“She would just see things. Many of her photos, it’s just that one click. You’ve got to recognise when a great photo is happening in front of you. And then you’ve got to snap it at exactly the right moment… And she did that so many times that it always impressed me.”

These “right” moments also feature some landscapes across Scotland and Arizona, as well as the odd celebrity, as the likes of Steve McQueen and Adam Ant wander into the frame. Other pictures attest to her love of animals, with compassionate images of cats, lambs, horses, and hens. It’s a pre-Instagram glimpse into the life of an extraordinary family, a celebration of Linda’s legacy as a fiercely committed artist and of the instant magic of Polaroid film.

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Beautiful Photos of Martin Luther King Jr. at Home With His Wife and Their Children in 1964

While studying at Boston University, Martin Luther King Jr. asked a friend from Atlanta named Mary Powell, who was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music, if she knew any nice Southern girls. Powell asked fellow student Coretta Scott if she was interested in meeting a Southern friend studying divinity. Scott was not interested in dating preachers, but eventually agreed to allow Martin to telephone her based on Powell’s description and vouching.

On their first phone call, King told Scott “I am like Napoleon at Waterloo before your charms,” to which she replied “You haven’t even met me.” They went out for dates in his green Chevy. After the second date, King was certain Scott possessed the qualities he sought in a wife. She had been an activist at Antioch in undergrad, where Carol and Rod Serling were schoolmates.

King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents’ house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama. They became the parents of four children: Yolanda King (1955–2007), Martin Luther King III (b. 1957), Dexter Scott King (b. 1961), and Bernice King (b. 1963).

During their marriage, King limited Coretta’s role in the civil rights movement, expecting her to be a housewife and mother.

These beautiful photos were taken by Flip Schulke that show lovely moments of Martin Luther King Jr. enjoying Sunday dinner at home after church with his wife Coretta and their children Yolanda, Marty, Dexter, and Bernice on November 8, 1964.

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The Story Behind the Famous Flying Baby From the 1995 Patagonia Catalog

The original baby-throwing image is taken from the Spring 1995 Patagonia outdoors catalog. The catalog’s caption reads “Come to papa. Jordan Leads, lifting off from Sherry Leads, heads for a safe reentry into Jeff Leads’ arms. Turtle Rock, Joshua Tree National Park, California.”

That baby, named Jordan Leads, is now 28 years old. The picture was taken back in 1991 after Greg Epperson, a rock climbing photographer, asked her parents if they wanted to participate in the stunt. Everything worked out and Leads landed safely in her father’s arms.

The photo remained under wraps until it was released four years later as part of a Patagonia catalog. Recently, the picture was re-released for a current Patagonia catalog, along with a life update about the infamous flying baby.

(Photo: Greg Epperson/Patagonia)

Currently, Jordan Leads is studying to be a court reporter, living in Las Vegas. She claims the photo remained one of the many outdoorsy photos that peppered the walls of her childhood home. With the rise of social media, it wasn’t long before the image was turned into a meme, which Leads found to be particularly humorous.

While she finds many of them funny, states that her favorite is the one “where my parents are feeding me to a Jurassic Park dinosaur. I think that’s the best.” Leads’ parents, Jerry and Sherry, never received any real backlash for tossing their child. She’s happy about that and hopes even to re-create the photo with her own child someday.

“I can’t wait to show it to my kids one day and to show them how I was growing up, how my parents raised me and to really just bring that whole family value of going outside back to them,” Leads told NPR. “I would put [my photo] up on the wall, and then I could put my child’s right next to it in our hallway ... I think that would be really cool.”

Jordan Leads in 2018. (Photo: Tim Davis/Patagonia)

For Mother's Day, See How Moms Around the World Have Cared for Their Children for the Last 100 Years

The origins of Mother’s Day are attributed to different people. Many believe that two women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis were important in establishing the tradition of Mother’s Day in the United States. Other sources say that Juliet Calhoun Blakely initiated Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the late 1800s. Her sons paid tribute to her each year and urged others to honor their mothers.

Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for Mother’s Day to be celebrated each year to encourage pacifism and disarmament amongst women. It continued to be held in Boston for about ten years under her sponsorship, but died out after that.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis held a private Mother’s Day celebration in memory of her mother, Ann Jarvis, in Grafton, West Virginia. Ann Jarvis had organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to improve health and cleanliness in the area where she lived. Anna Jarvis launched a quest for Mother's Day to be more widely recognized. Her campaign was later financially supported by John Wanamaker, a clothing merchant from Philadelphia.

In 1908, she was instrumental in arranging a service in the Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which was attended by 407 children and their mothers. The church has now become the International Mother's Day Shrine. It is a tribute to all mothers and has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Mother’s Day has become a day that focuses on generally recognizing mothers’ and mother figures’ roles. Mother’s Day has also become an increasingly important event for businesses in recent years. This is particularly true of restaurants and businesses manufacturing and selling cards and gift items.

The mothers in these vintage images strike familiar poses that span the globe and cross cultural and geographic barriers. Their clothing and hairstyles may differ, but their actions are similar, showing that a mother's love is universal.

A Bedouin mother, elaborately adorned with jewelry, gazes at her infant child in the early 1900s. (Photograph by Garrigues, Nat Geo Image Collection)

Dressed in traditional clothing, a woman in northern Mongolia carries her son on her back. (Photograph by Ethan C. Le Munyon, Nat Geo Image Collection)

A mother in the Middle East breastfeeds her baby as she sits outside her home. (Photograph by American Colony Photographers, Nat Geo Image Collection)

A mother and daughter watch for a signal fire through a telescope in Arizona's Grand Canyon. (Photograph by Kolb Brothers, Nat Geo Image Collection)

A Javanese mother nurses her child on Java Island, Indonesia. (Photograph by Eliza R. Scidmore, Nat Geo Image Collection)

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Beautiful Color Photos of Jane Fonda and Family in 1969

In August 1965, Jane Fonda married her first husband, French screenwriter and film director Roger Vadim. They had a daughter, Vanessa Vadim, born in 1968, named after English actress Vanessa Redgrave. Below are 19 vintage color photographs capture the actress spending time with her family in 1969:

With husband Roger Vadim and new-born daughter Vanessa.

With Henry Fonda. (Douglas Kirkland)

With husband Roger Vadim, father Henry Fonda, and brother Peter Fonda. (Douglas Kirkland)

With husband Roger Vadim. (Douglas Kirkland)

Feeding daughter Vanessa. (Douglas Kirkland)

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Vintage Photos Capture Farewell Scenes at Penn Station in World War II

At the height of the Second World War, in April 1943, LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt came to Penn Station and captured the sorrowful farewell scenes between young soldiers and their families. These forlorn figures, who were bidding goodbyes, seemed to anxiously fear that they might never have any chance to reunite with their loved ones after this departure.

Here’s how LIFE described the scenes in its February 14, 1944 issue:

They stand in front of the gates leading to the trains, deep in each other’s arms, not caring who sees or what they think.

Each goodbye is a drama complete in itself, which Eisenstaedt’s pictures movingly tell. Sometimes the girl stands with arms around the boys’ waist, hands tightly clasped behind. Another fits her head into the curve of his cheek while tears fall onto his coat. Now and then the boy will take her face between his hands and speak reassuringly. Or if the wait is long they may just stand quietly, not saying anything. The common denominator of all these goodbyes is sadness and tenderness, and complete oblivion for the moment to anything but their own individual heartaches.

Below are 34 black-and-white photographs capture the farewells at the station: