The Couple in “American Gothic” Aren’t Husband and Wife

Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” has become one of the most recognizable images of rural American life, and it’s easy to assume that the stern-looking pair are husband and wife. In reality, Wood intended them to represent a farmer and his adult daughter. The models were his sister, Nan, and his dentist, Byron McKeeby, chosen for their striking, angular features. By leaving their connection deliberately ambiguous, Wood created a tension that continues to shape how viewers interpret the painting.

When “American Gothic” debuted in 1930, many Iowans took offense, reading it as a bleak satire of rural life. Wood insisted he meant it as a sincere tribute to Midwestern character, but the painting’s lasting power lies in its uncertainty — a portrait that can appear either affectionate or critical, depending on who is looking.

“The Starry Night” Was Painted From Memory

When Vincent Van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in 1889, he was living inside a psychiatric asylum in southern France, where he had voluntarily committed himself following a mental health crisis. Confined to the hospital grounds, he worked largely from memory and imagination, transforming the limited view from his barred window into one of the most recognizable skies in art history.

The quiet village in the foreground of “The Starry Night” was not visible from Van Gogh’s room and appears to be largely invented, shaped more by memory and emotion than by the actual landscape around him. The dramatic whorls of the sky, long seen as purely symbolic, have been compared by scientists to mathematical patterns found in turbulent flow — phenomena formally described decades after the painting was made. Whether intentional or instinctive, Van Gogh’s brushwork captured a natural rhythm that science would only later begin to explain.

“The Last Supper” Began Falling Apart Almost Immediately

Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is one of the most reproduced religious images in history — yet surprisingly little of the original surface remains. It was painted on the wall of the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and Leonardo did not use traditional fresco, which required painting quickly on wet plaster. Instead, he experimented with a slower, experimental technique that allowed him to rework details and facial expressions. The paint failed to properly bond with the wall, and the image began deteriorating within just a few years of its completion.

What visitors see today is the result of centuries of repair and restoration layered over the fragile remains of Leonardo’s original work. Wars, humidity, pollution, and repeated retouching further compromised the surface, leaving conservators to stabilize rather than truly preserve the paint. While modern restoration efforts have carefully reconstructed missing sections, experts agree that just 20% of what is visible today reflects Leonardo’s original brushwork.

“Girl With a Pearl Earring” Isn’t Really a Portrait

Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” is not a traditional portrait of a specific individual, but a tronie — a Dutch Golden Age character study that emphasizes expression, costume, and lighting rather than identity. The girl’s exotic turban and luminous earring enhance the painting’s drama, turning her into an idealized, timeless figure rather than a known sitter. Tronies were popular among Dutch artists as a way to experiment with light, color, and facial expressions, and Vermeer’s work exemplifies this approach.

Even the pearl itself may not be a real gemstone. Its simplified brushwork and reflective highlights suggest it could be glass, metal, or even a painterly effect designed to catch light and draw attention to the girl’s gaze. Vermeer’s true focus was the interplay of light and shadow across the subject’s face and costume, using the earring as a visual anchor that emphasizes her expressive look.

Seurat Used Color Science To Paint “La Grande Jatte”

Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” may look serene, but it was constructed based on scientific color theory. Influenced by scholars such as Michel Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Nicholas Rood, Seurat applied thousands of tiny dots of pure, unmixed pigment side by side, letting the viewer’s eye optically mix them at a distance. This method, called pointillism, forms the basis of neo-impressionism, a movement Seurat helped pioneer that emphasized luminous color, systematic technique, and scientific principles in painting.

The resulting scene feels controlled and still, despite depicting leisure in a Paris park. Figures are arranged with geometric precision and rarely interact, giving the painting a formal, almost frozen quality. Scholars interpret this composed stillness — along with the meticulous technique — as a reflection of modern urban life, social order, and the tension between observation and human isolation in late 19th‑century Paris.

“Christina’s World” Depicts Life With Disability

At first glance, Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” may appear to show a woman resting in a sunlit field, but the story behind the image is far more compelling. The painting depicts Anna Christina Olson, a lifelong resident of Cushing, Maine, who lived with a degenerative muscular disorder that left her unable to walk by her mid‑20s. Rather than use a wheelchair or other mobility aid, Olson pulled herself across the ground using her arms.

Wyeth and his wife Betsy were close friends with Christina and her brother Alvaro, and Wyeth spent decades capturing their world in drawings, watercolors, and tempera. While Wyeth’s painting reflects Christina’s lived experience, the torso and youthful form in the painting were modeled by Betsy — a choice that has sparked some debate over authenticity and the ethics of representing another person’s body in place of the subject’s own.

Helvetica

Today, Helvetica is one of the world’s most common fonts, ubiquitous in advertising, publishing, and urban signage. It was created in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas Type Foundry in Basel, Switzerland. Inspired by the vintage Akzidenz-Grotesk font (released in 1898), Helvetica was envisioned as a neutral typeface that was clear, easy to read, and could be used almost anywhere, from magazine articles to the New York City subway. 

Originally, the font was named Neue Haas Grotesk — but, understandably, the type foundry decided to find a more appealing name before marketing the font internationally. The designers suggested Helvetia— the Latin name for Switzerland — which was then tweaked to Helvetica. The font became available for Linotype printing machines and later, Apple’s first Macintosh computer in 1984. From there, Helvetica’s popularity exploded, and it became arguably the most influential font of the 20th century.

Courier

Courier was designed by Howard “Bud” Kettler in 1955 for IBM, specifically for the company’s typewriters. It was made to be monospaced, meaning that every character occupies exactly the same width — a mechanical necessity in typewriters where each key strikes the paper at the same distance from the last. 

IBM made a strategic business decision not to protect Courier with copyright or design patents, and as a result it soon became a standard font used throughout the entire typewriter industry. Even when digital typography arrived and many fonts abandoned monospacing, Courier persisted. As for the font’s name, Kettler nearly called it Messenger. He then changed his mind, explaining, “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.” 

Arial

You might not expect to find much controversy in the world of fonts, but the rise of Arial brought about a typeface hullabaloo. The seemingly innocuous font was designed in 1982 by type designers Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders. It was created to be metrically compatible with Helvetica, with Arial’s characters having exactly the same widths as the older, established font. This meant that documents could easily swap between Arial and Helvetica without layout changes. 

The creation of this new, suspiciously similar font was also a way to avoid licensing fees for using Helvetica. The design community was swift in its criticism of Arial, calling it a poor imitation and clone of Helvetica. Nonetheless, the font quickly grew in popularity after its inclusion in Microsoft Windows in 1992, and it is now preinstalled on virtually every computer. Still, it remains a black sheep in the typographer community: In 2001, type designer Mark Simonson called Arial “little more than a shameless impostor” that only “pretends to be different.” 

Comic Sans

Comic Sans is another font with a notorious reputation. But when type designer Vincent Connare created the font for Microsoft in 1994, he didn’t intend any harm. In fact, the typeface was originally intended for the speech bubbles of an animated cartoon dog called Rover who appeared in the short-lived Microsoft Bob software that guided users through the Windows interface. 

Connare, who quite reasonably argued that dogs don't talk in Times New Roman, created Comic Sans as a friendlier, more playful alternative, with comic book-inspired letterforms in a handwritten style. Microsoft included Comic Sans in Windows 95, and soon it was everywhere: on birthday invitations, in classrooms, in business presentations, etc. It even began appearing in what the design community considered highly inappropriate contexts, including on gravestones, commemorative benches, and funeral invitations. A backlash ensued, championed by the “Ban Comic Sans” movement of 1999. Somehow, a font designed for a cartoon dog became one of the most significant — and divisive — typefaces of the digital age.

Georgia

Traditional serif fonts such as Times New Roman were designed for high-resolution printing. But while their fine details looked elegant in books, magazines, and newspapers, they turned blurry or jagged on low-resolution screens. So, in 1993, Matthew Carter, one of the most renowned typographers of the 20th century, designed a serif font specifically for the digital world. 

The result was Georgia. Among its chief characteristics were a larger-than-average x-height (the height of lowercase letters, excluding ascenders and descenders) and increased tracking (the space between each letter), improving clarity and readability, especially on small displays, regardless of resolution. 

The font’s elegant-sounding name has a less than elegant origin story. Apparently, Carter was deciding what to call his new font when he saw a tabloid headline that read: “Alien Heads Found in Georgia.” He thought that “Georgia” sounded like a good name for an elegant typeface, and chose it for his font. 

Calibri

In 2002, Dutch type designer Lucas de Groot was contacted by an intermediary who asked him to create a proposal for a monospace typeface and a sans serif font for an unnamed client. He sent his two proposals to the client, including sketches for his new Calibri design; the client, which turned out to be Microsoft, accepted both. The font was exactly what Microsoft was looking for: Its subtly rounded design was friendly; its clean, straightforward lines were easy to read; and it was perfectly suited to screens of all sizes. 

Calibri was released to the public in 2007 with Windows Vista, becoming the default font on Microsoft Office and immediately going global. Etymologically, Calibri could have had a very different backstory. Microsoft requested a name that started with the letter C, to which De Groot proposed “Clas” (a Scandinavian name associated with “class”) and “Curva” or “Curvae.” But the people at Microsoft pointed out that “Clas” meant “to fart” in Greek, and “Curva” meant “prostitute” in Russian. So, in the end, they settled on the inoffensive “Calibri,” which Microsoft employees said relates to “calibrating the rasterizer in the ClearType font rendering system” — whatever that might mean. 

Unidentified Edwardian Woman

One of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of the modern photo-poser is the mirror selfie. But using a mirror to take a photo of yourself is nothing new; it’s been done for well over a century. One of the most famous early selfies was taken by an unnamed Edwardian woman using a Kodak Brownie, a type of box camera first released in 1900. The photo shows the woman standing with her camera in front of a tall mirror. The mystery surrounding her identity only adds to the photo’s appeal. We are left to wonder who she is, and whether it was her who took the photos we can see on shelves to the right of the mirror. 

Harold Cazneaux

Harold Cazneaux was a pioneer of photography in Australia, capturing diverse subjects in a huge collection of images spanning the first half of the 20th century. His photos include sweeping landscapes, urban scenes, and intimate portraits, as well as self-portraits. Cazneaux could be considered something of an early adopter when it comes to selfies; his earliest self-portrait was taken in 1904 at the age of 26, and many more followed, including the selfie above, taken in 1937. These weren’t the off-the-cuff selfies we’re accustomed to today — Cazneaux’s compositions were always well considered. “The photographer,” he once wrote, “must be in accordance with all nature’s moods; he must feel the very spirit of the scene if he is to be successful.” 

Joseph Byron

If you’re reading this thinking, “Well, these examples aren’t really selfies,” then consider Joseph Byron. Byron specialized in photographing Broadway shows and other stage productions, while also documenting life in New York City. In 1909, he took some self-portraits while standing on the roof of a building on Fifth Avenue — images that very much conform to the modern notion of a selfie, with the camera held in outstretched arms. He also took a group selfie in a similar manner, featuring a handful of his dapper colleagues sporting a fine selection of old-school hats and mustaches. 

Grand Duchess Anastasia 

Anastasia was the grand duchess of Russia and the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II — the last emperor of Russia. In 1914, when she was 13, she took a handful of self-portraits using a Kodak Brownie box camera and a mirror. The photos, taken in her bedroom at Alexander Palace, were among the first-ever selfies taken by royalty, and could also represent the first teen selfies. Sadly, the images are indelibly tinged with tragedy. Anastasia was killed with other members of her family during the October Revolution of 1917, just a few years after she took the photos.

Forehead Plucking

The majority of Renaissance women were not blessed with a naturally large forehead, a fact that made forehead plucking a common practice. Women would often pluck their forehead hairs for a higher hairline; other methods included rubbing the hairline with a rough stone or burning off the hair with quicklime. 

If that seems extreme, other hair-removal methods were entirely bizarre. Around 1500, the Italian noblewoman Caterina Sforza produced a manuscript called Gli Experimenti in which she details more than 400 cosmetic, medicinal, and alchemical recipes, including one for forehead hair removal. The recipe recommends tying a cloth bathed in a mixture of egg whites and mastic gum powder to the forehead, and then leaving it overnight. After a handful of applications, bat blood and fine lead powder were applied to prevent hair growing back. 

Many other depilatory treatments such as this existed specifically targeting the top of the forehead — one of which involved rotten beef and powdered maggots. Most of these procedures would have been uncomfortable and time-consuming, and yet people, especially among the aristocracy, were very much committed to these beauty rituals. And while it’s entirely likely that Renaissance artists may have exaggerated certain foreheads out of simple flattery, their paintings documented the actual beauty standards of the time. 

An International Investigation 

Initially, staff at the Louvre didn’t realize the “Mona Lisa” had been stolen. It wasn’t uncommon for paintings to be removed for cleaning or photography, so the blank space that the portrait normally occupied was ignored for more than a day. But then, when people started to ask questions, the whole story exploded, sparking an international manhunt and unprecedented media coverage. At the time, the “Mona Lisa” wasn’t nearly as famous as it is today. But the media frenzy surrounding the theft catapulted the painting to new heights, and all of a sudden there was global public interest in Leonardo’s enigmatic masterpiece. 

French police soon began interrogating hundreds of suspects. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and imprisoned thanks to his associations with the light-fingered Joseph Gery Pieret, a man known to have stolen small items from the Louvre before. Apollinaire then implicated none other than Pablo Picasso, who had recently bought stolen sculptures from Pieret. (We don’t know if Picasso was aware they were stolen.) At one point, the American tycoon and art lover J.P. Morgan was also suspected of commissioning the theft. All of these men were found to be innocent, and the investigation dragged on.  

For more than two years, the “Mona Lisa” sat hidden in Peruggia’s modest Paris apartment, where he would often take it out to gaze upon the masterpiece — he poetically stated, after his arrest, “I fell a victim to her smile and feasted my eyes on my treasure every evening. I fell in love with her.” Eventually, Peruggia tried to sell the painting, which led to his downfall. The potential buyers, upon seeing the genuine “Mona Lisa,” reported the thief to the authorities. On December 11, 1913, police arrested Peruggia and the “Mona Lisa” was returned to its rightful place in the Louvre. 

The Most Valuable Object Ever Stolen

Since the theft of the “Mona Lisa,” many other famous and valuable paintings have been stolen. For example, Edvard Munch’s “Scream,” worth $120 million, was stolen twice, in 1994 and 2004, and “The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer, valued at $200 million, was stolen in 1990. Of course, it’s not only paintings that get the big bucks. A $3 million violin — known as the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius — was nabbed in 1995. And in 2003, the Saliera, a sculpture and functional salt cellar worth about $57 million, was taken from a museum in Vienna. Even Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz were stolen, before later selling at auction for $28 million. And back in 1907, someone stole the Irish Crown Jewels — worth at least $5.5 million today —from Dublin Castle, in a case that remains unsolved.

The “Mona Lisa,” however, is in a different league. It’s hard to put a price on the famed painting, but it did receive an insurance valuation of $100 million in 1962, equivalent to about $865 million today — the highest insurance valuation ever recorded for a painting. This alone makes the “Mona Lisa” the most valuable object ever stolen, as recognized by Guinness World Records. More recently, in 2014, experts valued the painting at a whopping $2.5 billion, far eclipsing the value of any other stolen object in history. 

The Renaissance Brought a Cultural Shift

Around the 14th century, things began to shift. The Renaissance — an intellectual and cultural movement that most scholars agree began in Florence, Italy — brought a renewed focus on nature, humanism, and realism in art. Artists became more interested in depicting the world as it actually appeared, rather than as a symbolic landscape. 

This shift wasn’t instantaneous or universal. You could still stumble across a man-baby in a Renaissance-era painting if the artist was particularly committed to older styles. And the Renaissance itself was not a monolith; it didn’t blanket Europe uniformly or overnight. But the changes it ushered in had profound effects on artistic representation, including how babies were depicted.

One key factor was the rise of secular art. As Florence’s middle class grew in wealth and influence, more people could afford to commission portraits of their families, including their children. And understandably, they didn’t want their toddlers immortalized as frowning and balding. This demand for more personalized, relatable portraiture helped shift artistic norms. Over time, even depictions of baby Jesus became softer, rounder, and more recognizably infantile.

Renaissance idealism also played a major role in how children were depicted. Artists began studying anatomy, observing real babies, and drawing inspiration from classical sculpture. The result was a new visual vocabulary: plump cheeks, curling tufts of hair, playful expressions. These weren’t just more realistic babies — they were idealized versions, blending the best features into adorable cherubic forms.

Attitudes Toward Children Changed

Alongside these artistic developments, a subtler change was happening in how society viewed children. Although we should be cautious not to project too much onto medieval families (there’s no evidence that parents loved their children any less), the Renaissance introduced a new philosophical current. Children began to be seen less as incomplete adults and more as innocent beings, untainted by sin or worldly knowledge. As adults’ attitudes toward childhood evolved, so too did their depictions of children. Cute babies weren’t just aesthetically pleasing — they reflected deeper cultural values around family, morality, and human development.

In short, those weird medieval babies weren’t just artistic oddities. They were visual expressions of a different worldview. So next time you see a medieval baby that looks like it’s about to pay taxes, don’t laugh too hard. That little face is telling a rich story about art, belief, and how we’ve come to see the smallest among us.

“Babe Ruth Bows Out” by Nat Fein

Babe Ruth's home run records and larger-than-life personality made him baseball’s first true superstar and one of its most enduring icons. On June 13, 1948, Yankee Stadium hosted a celebration to not only mark the ballpark’s 25th anniversary but also retire the Great Bambino’s iconic No. 3 jersey. At the time, Ruth hadn’t played for the New York Yankees in more than a decade; more poignantly, he was dying of terminal throat cancer. When the Sultan of Swat made his way to home plate, photographers crowded the first baseline for the perfect shot of the legend who, with a baseball bat as a makeshift cane, appeared frail. Nat Fein, however, wanted to capture Ruth’s jersey number, which was only visible from behind. Though the longtime New York Herald Tribune photographer rarely covered sports — he was filling in for a sick colleague that day — his instincts were spot-on. Fein’s photo, which powerfully captured Ruth’s vulnerability and his No. 3 jersey, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1949. Ruth passed away two months after the famous photo was taken.

“Kiss of Life” by Rocco Morabito

Sometimes capturing a moment is a matter of chance. In July 1967, Jacksonville Journal photographer Rocco Morabito was on his way to cover a train strike in Jacksonville, Florida, when an unrelated sight caught his photographic eye: electrical linemen, working up high on utility poles, their silhouettes against the sky. Not wanting to miss his deadline, he continued on to his assignment, only to loop back to the linemen for some pictures when he was done. But as he approached, he noticed a commotion. Utility lineman Randall Champion had electrocuted himself and was dangling upside down from the power pole. As Champion’s co-worker J.D. Thompson sprang into action, climbing the pole and immediately beginning mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Morabito followed his instinct and snapped a few quick pictures before rushing to call for help. The lineman regained consciousness and Morabito hurried back to the newspaper’s office to print his photos. The mouth-to-mouth photo ran on the front page with the caption “The Kiss of Life,” and after being picked up by the Associated Press, it became an international sensation. In 1968, Morabito won a Pulitzer for the photo, and in 2024, Thompson, the man who saved his co-worker, had a Jacksonville street named after him.

“Burst of Joy” by Slava Veder

After the Paris Peace Accord was signed in early 1973, ending the United States’ war in Vietnam, American prisoners of war began to return home. On one such momentous occasion, Slava Veder of the Associated Press was on the tarmac at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. On March 17, when Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stirm returned home after being imprisoned in North Vietnam for almost six years, his 15-year-old daughter charged toward him, arms outstretched and face ecstatic; Stirm’s other children and wife followed closely behind her. The image, however joyful, was bittersweet: Just days before the reunion, Stirm had received a letter from his wife stating her intention to end their marriage. Still, “Burst of Joy” became one of the most recognizable images of the Vietnam War era, and in 1974, Veder’s picture-perfect moment won a Pulitzer Prize. 

“Coretta Scott King” by Moneta Sleet Jr.

Photographer Moneta Sleet Jr. had a close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and his family. Sleet spent years covering the Civil Rights Movement at Ebony magazine, including the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, the 1963 March on Washington, and the pivotal 1965 events in Selma, Alabama. He also captured the day that King was laid to rest. On April 9, 1968, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Sleet snapped a strikingly sorrowful photo of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and their youngest daughter, Bernice, just days after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1969, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize, making Sleet the first African American male to receive the award (Gwendolyn Brooks won for her poetry in 1950). But the photograph almost didn’t happen. Initially, Sleet didn’t get accredited to cover the funeral; when Coretta Scott King heard, she threatened to ban all media coverage if Sleet wasn’t allowed in. 

“Serious Steps” by Paul Vathis

On April 22, 1961, President John F. Kennedy and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower met at Camp David in the aftermath of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, a disastrous mission planned by Eisenhower and carried out by his successor to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The encounter, which marked Eisenhower's last visit to the presidential retreat, was attended by several members of the press. Associated Press photographer Paul Vathis captured an image of the two presidents walking together, heads down in serious conversation. The gravity of the photo matched the cultural moment: The failure embarrassed the Kennedy administration while further straining U.S. relations with Cuba. The somber photo struck a nerve, and in 1962, Vathis was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the snap — one that Kennedy’s press secretary scolded the photographer for taking after the official photo op was over. 

Moviegoers in 3D Glasses (1952)

Photographer J.R. Eyerman’s famous shot, taken in 1952 at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood, California, captures a pivotal moment in cinema history. The image shows a sea of moviegoers, all wearing 3D glasses, transfixed by the screen while watching Bwana Devil, the first full-length color movie in 3D. (The movie’s tagline boldly promised “A lion in your lap! A lover in your arms!”) Eyerman’s photo encapsulated the excitement and novelty of 3D technology in the 1950s, while also presenting a visually impactful image in its own right, with the striking uniformity of the smartly dressed, 3D-glasses-wearing audience. It has since become one of the most recognizable images of 1950s popular culture. 

“Camelot” (1953)

In 1953, Hy Peskin, an American photographer known for several famous photographs published by Sports Illustrated and LIFE, was invited to take photographs at the home of the Kennedys. Specifically, he was to capture the then-rookie Senator John F. Kennedy and his fiancee, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The resulting images offered a casual yet vibrant portrayal of the young couple, in stark contrast to the typically stuffy and polished political photos of the time. One photo, which shows Kennedy and Bouvier on their boat, the Victura, became the first of 20 images of JFK to feature on the cover of LIFE. Now known as “Camelot,” the image fostered public fascination with the young couple, helping pave the way for Kennedy’s presidential victory. 

Tenzing Norgay on the Summit of Mount Everest (1953)

On May 29, 1953, mountaineers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary gazed out over Tibet from the highest point on the planet. They had just become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and soon the whole world would hear of their achievement. Many photos were taken during the expedition, but arguably the most famous is that of Norgay, a Nepalese Indian Sherpa, standing atop the highest peak in the world, his ice ax raised triumphantly in the freezing air. Hillary, an explorer from New Zealand, took the photo with a fairly basic Kodak Retina compact camera. There is, however, no comparative image of Hillary standing at the summit — the New Zealander apparently refused a photograph when Norgay offered to return the favor.

Marilyn Monroe in a White Dress (1954)

Marilyn Monroe was a defining figure of the 1950s, representing both the ideal of feminine beauty and changing attitudes toward sexuality. Countless photos were taken of the archetypal “blonde bombshell,” but none is more iconic than Sam Shaw’s photo of Monroe standing over a subway grate as her white dress billows up around her. Shaw, who was a close friend of Monroe’s, took the photo during the filming of The Seven Year Itch. Despite pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in the conservative 1950s, the image became a near-instant classic in a decade when celebrity worship was reaching new heights. 

Elizabeth Eckford and “The Scream” (1957)

In 1957, photojournalist Will Counts captured one of the most recognizable images of America’s Civil Rights Movement. The photo shows 15-year-old African American student Elizabeth Eckford walking alone as she is harassed by angry white protesters during the height of the Central High School desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas. Eckford appears calm and dignified despite the hostility surrounding her. The image captured one woman in particular in midshout, her face contorted with rage — hence the photo sometimes being known as “The Scream.” 

Joshua Reynolds

While not as well remembered as Michelangelo, painter Joshua Reynolds was a big deal in 18th-century England. Reynolds is best known for launching the “Grand Manner” portraiture movement, which placed subjects in classical poses amid idealized depictions of nature, even if many of his works aged poorly due to his experiments with colors. Thanks to his personal connections, the artist received the opportunity to paint many of his era’s celebrities (including King George III) and establish his own standing in high-society circles. 

A founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Reynolds became its inaugural president in 1768, and was knighted the following year. Around that time he delivered the first of 15 lectures to Royal Academy students, later published for posterity as Discourses. Upon his death in 1792, Reynolds’ body was brought to London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in a procession that included 91 carriages filled with his famous friends, trailed by the members of the Royal Academy’s faculty and student body.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Overcoming the stifling limitations of her traditional training, Georgia O’Keeffe forged her own path to emerge as the “mother of American modernism” in the years following World War I. This was partly due to the connections and promotional abilities of her husband, New York gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, but mainly due to the accessibility of her work. Unlike, say, French modernist Marcel Duchamp, who aimed to provoke by exhibiting a urinal in a gallery, O’Keeffe’s abstractions were far more pleasing to the eye and mind. 

Drawing inspiration from her immediate surroundings, be it the petals featured in “Petunia No. 2” (1924), the skyscraper of “Radiator Building - Night, New York” (1927), or the horned subject of “Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue” (1931), O’Keeffe found an audience willing to shell out premium prices for her oil paintings by the 1920s. The first woman to earn a retrospective from the Museum of Modern Art in 1946, she was recognized as a national treasure toward the end of her life, receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford in 1977 and the Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Salvador Dalí

Instantly recognizable with his pointed mustache and wide-eyed countenance, Spain’s Salvador Dalí wielded a celebrity that transcended his formidable skills with a paintbrush. Following his early dabbles with cubism and impressionism, Dalí became a leader of the burgeoning surrealist movement by way of such compellingly bizarre paintings as “The Persistence of Memory” (1931) and “The Enigma of William Tell” (1933). 

While he was soon excommunicated from the surrealists, the combination of his instinct for public theatrics and the acute business sense of his wife and muse, Gala, ensured his survival as a one-man brand. Dalí spent much of the 1940s in the United States, where he channeled his creativity toward projects in feature films, jewelry, and theater set design, before returning to Spain at the end of the decade to focus on religious imagery in his paintings. While his later years were not happy ones, Dalí had earned enough money to buy a castle for his beloved Gala, as well as the creative freedom to launch a museum dedicated to his works in his hometown of Figueres.

Andy Warhol

Had he continued on his early career path as a commercial illustrator, Andy Warhol likely would have retired a financially secure if mostly unknown individual. Instead, he became the face of the pop art movement by way of photo-based paintings such as “Campbell’s Soup Cans” (1962) and “Triple Elvis” (1963), while his Manhattan studio, aka “The Factory,” emerged as the center of the bohemian New York City art scene. Although he ostensibly “retired” from painting in the mid-’60s to focus on filmmaking and other endeavors, that decision proved short-lived; Warhol supported himself by undertaking commissioned portraits through the 1970s, and he later enjoyed a revival via collaborations with younger talents such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. His fame and fortune intact upon his death in 1987, Warhol demonstrated to successive generations of artists that it was OK to fulfill one’s creative ambitions while simultaneously seeking pursuit of the almighty dollar.

The Breaker Boys Photo, 1911 

In 1908, the U.S. National Child Labor Committee hired sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine to photograph children at work in mills, mines, and factories. His photos of the “breaker boys” — children usually between the ages of 8 and 12 who worked in coal mines — helped build public support for legislation barring child labor. 

“Le Violon d'Ingres,” 1924

“Le Violon d'Ingres” is a black-and-white photograph created by the American visual artist Man Ray. It features the model Kiki de Montparnasse, with two f-holes painted on her back to make her body resemble a violin. One of the most iconic images of the surrealist movement, it set a record in 2022 when it sold for $12.4 million, becoming the most expensive photo of all time. 

“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” 1932

The 1930s were a decade of many iconic photos, from the Hindenburg zeppelin bursting into flames to a classic photo purporting to show the Loch Ness monster. Arguably the most famous, however, was a black-and-white portrait of 11 ironworkers eating lunch while sitting precariously on a steel beam 850 feet in the air, taken during the construction of Rockefeller Center in New York City. 

“Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” 1945

World War II heralded a new era of war photography, much of it more intimate and at times more harrowing than anything previously seen. One of the most recognizable images was taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945. It shows six United States Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Three of the Marines were killed in action during the battle, but their image remains a timeless portrayal of troops at war. 

“The Scream Image,” 1957 

In 1957, photographer Will Counts took a series of photos during the Central High School desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas. One of his photos, sometimes known as “The Scream Image,” shows Black student Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by white students in front of the school. Instantly iconic, the image became a key symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. 

“Earthrise,” 1968

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 saw a spectacular sight as they orbited the moon: the Earth appearing above the lunar horizon. Astronaut Bill Anders took a photo, which became known as “Earthrise.” Not only was it the first color photograph of Earth taken from space, but it also inspired a generation to think more seriously about our planet. The image is now widely credited with advancing the global environmental movement. 

Nixon Gives the “V” Sign, 1974

The 1970s were characterized by political upheaval on a global scale, with frequent coups, domestic conflicts, and civil wars. In the U.S., the decade was marked by the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon’s term, and the Watergate scandal. This iconic image shows Nixon waving goodbye from the steps of his helicopter as he leaves the White House after his farewell address on August 9, 1974. 

“Tank Man,” 1989

From a sixth-floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel, Jeff Widener of the Associated Press took one of the most recognizable photos of all time. Below him, in Tiananmen Square, a lone man bravely stood in front of a column of tanks, repeatedly changing his position in order to obstruct their attempted advance. Widener’s photo is a classic image of resistance, though the lone protester has never been identified. 

“Pillars of Creation,” 1995

Photography is literally light-years ahead of where it was when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photo in history from his upstairs window. “The Pillars of Creation” — arguably the Hubble Space Telescope’s most iconic image — shows a section of the Eagle Nebula star cluster located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. It features three huge, fingerlike columns formed of interstellar gas and dust, where the process of creating new stars takes place, all captured in a truly awe-inspiring photograph.