Bill Syken

1 week ago | life.com | Bill Syken

In the 1940s Neva Burright gained attention as a harness-racing grandmother. But by that time she had been competing in the sport for decades, and she had been around horse tracks from the beginning of her life—quite literallyBurright was born on the infield of a racetrack in 1883, and for the rest of her life she stayed close by. She had a 57-year career in horse racing; even after she stopped competing she worked as a timer and a race official. She did all this while being a mother of seven.

2 weeks ago | life.com | Bill Syken

Marcel Duchamp arrived on the scene in the early part of the 20th century with brash works intended to upset the art establishment. The most famous of these works were his “ready-mades.” These were store-bought objects which he presented as sculptures simply by placing them on a pedestal. For a major 1917 exhibition in New York, he famously displayed a urinal under the title “Fountain.”He was part of a movement called Dadaism whose goal was anarchy as much as it was creation.

2 weeks ago | life.com | Bill Syken

By 1964 Sophia Loren had been a longtime favorite of LIFE readers, and Marcello Mastroianni was having his moment too. In its Jan. 18, 1963 issue the magazine had introduced the star of Fellini films such as La Dolce Vita to readers with a breathless seven-page story headlined, “.”So when Loren and Mastriano co-starred in the romantic comedy “Marriage Italian Style,” LIFE dispatched photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt—who had already taken so many great photos Loren—to document the moment.

3 weeks ago | life.com | Bill Syken

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is not what it used to be—not thousands of years ago, when it was a vast inland sea, and not 70 years ago either, when LIFE magazine devoted a large feature to this unique element of the American landscape. It is still the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and it attracts . But a couple years ago water loss had researchers warning that the Great Salt Lake could soon dry up entirely.

1 month ago | life.com | Bill Syken

Muhammad Ali was much more than a championship boxer. He was also a natural entertainer. In February 1963, a year before he changed his name, “Cassius Clay has the loudest—and most lyrical—mouth in the history of boxing and the fists to back it up.” In March 1963 LIFE photographer George Silk photographed Ali for his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, one which was meant to a be a potential stepping stone to a title shot against Sonny Liston.