History according to Life

"Soldier holding tattered flag of the Eighth PA Infantry, during Civil War, 1864."

An enormous archive of Life magazine photographs has gone online at a certain famous search engine. They are available to view by decade, but I couldn't go past the 1860s; surely the most remarkable decade in the history of the United States.

We are told that the collection contains images dating back to the 1750s. I suppose they would be drawings and etchings, since the invention of photography was only announced to the world in 1839.