Photo of the Day: June 2020
In Rockport, Maine, a woman waters a commercial herb garden. When ready, the plants will be made into healing salves and tinctures, used to treat a variety of ailments.
At the Geauga County Fair in 1997, a group of Amish women watch a harness race whiz by them. Today, some 18,000 Amish people reside in the Ohio county.
The original caption for this photo, published in December 1941, boasted that the drive-in movie screen was 53 feet wide. The picture was part of a story examining the role of American roads in times of war and peace.
At a wedding celebration in Sichuan Province, China, in the mid-1980s, a friend swings a piece of candy between the bride and groom, who both try to bite it at the same time. Candy is a traditional favour for wedding guests in China, as it symbolises the sweetness of love.
A mother admires her sleeping baby while enjoying a day in the gardens of Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. The palace was once used as Catherine the Great's summer home.
At a Zulu wedding in South Africa in the early 1970s, the bride's party brings modern gifts like furniture, suitcases, beer, and kitchen supplies. After this ceremony, the bride will say goodbye to her clan and avow her allegiance to her husband's.
A leopard, known by researchers as Legadema, stalks her prey along a tree limb in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Legadema's mother drove her from the territory at a young age, after Legadema refused to share a kill.
In Bamian, Afghanistan, women enjoy each other's company with a picnic. In addition to their cans of soda, they enjoy lamb, goat, fruit, and flatbread.
An architectural firm in New York City features a green roof. Such rooftop gardens help slow stormwater run-off, reduce energy costs, and reduce the urban heat island effect.
An article in the January 1976 issue praised Sweden's society and politics, including its health care system. Here, new parents meet their baby after a natural delivery in a public maternity hospital.
War in Rwanda in the 1990s displaced more than 40,000 children. Here, a child reunites with his mother after being separated.
Chinstrap penguins rest atop a blue iceberg in the South Sandwich Islands. The islands are hard to get to, but photographer Maria Stenzel describes them as "spooky and spiritual and immensely powerful."
When this story about the Peace Corps published in September 1964, the volunteer program was only a few years old. Here, an American volunteer named Nan Borton teaches English in Antakya, Turkey. Decades later, Borton would become the director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
This couple got married on Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. Beneath the glacier is an ancient forest, which started to appear in 2012 as climate change causes the glacier to recede.
A woman harvests orchids near Hilo, Hawaii, in this photo from the March 1975 issue. Orchids grown on the Big Island are shipped all over the world.
In rural Nebraska, the school day starts with raising the American flag. When this picture appeared in the October 1978 issue, these children—a third grader and a fifth grader—were the only two students that attended this one-room schoolhouse.
In October 1972, middle-class workers in Chile went on strike to protest new government programs that led to food shortages. These women—employees at a bank—demonstrate behind a sign that reads "Chile is and will be a country in liberty."
On a Christmas Eve in the mid-1950s, two sunbathing kids look out over Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Given the country's location in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas is in the middle of summer.
Flamingo parents share baby-rearing duties in Yucatán, Mexico. While a few are left in charge of the chicks, the rest of the adults go out to search for food, coming back in shifts to make sure everyone gets fed.
A barbershop in Baghdad, Iraq, bears the scars of bombing. This photo appeared in the September 2003 issue, just six months after the United States invaded Iraq.
When this photo was published in the March 1980 issue, this Chinese family was working on a state-owned farm in the far western regions of China. The goal of these programs was to grow the Chinese population along the border with the Soviet Union.
A school of blue maomao swim over a bed of kelp in the Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand. Once overfished, the area is now a protected marine reserve.
A 14-year-old boy with a rare condition called xeroderma pigmentosum wears a space suit made by NASA to protect his extra-sensitive skin from UV rays. This photo appeared in a story in the November 2002 issue all about our largest organ—skin.
Migrants return home to Niger after trying to find work in Libya. Their home country is one of the poorest in Africa, but those who try to find work elsewhere are often faced with significant xenophobia.
An aerial view shows the massive Horse Hollow Wind Energy Centre in Texas. When it was completed in 2006, it was the largest wind farm in the world.
After their wedding at a monastery in northeastern Romania, a couple waits for their reception to begin. This portrait from the December 1983 issue shows a room full of appetisers—which the whole village will soon gather to eat.
Women of the Candomblé faith give thanks to the sea goddess for the first catch of the day. Founded in Salvador, Brazil, the faith is a mixture of African beliefs that resulted from enslaved people's export to the country.
A playground entertains families visiting Iraq's Great Mosque of Samarra, seen in the background. The spiral minaret, shown here in the late 1990s, dates all the way back to 851. It sustained damage from bombing in 2005.
A young boy enjoys a slice of watermelon at a festival in Chiefland, Florida. Almost 40 years after this picture was published, Florida still leads the states in watermelon production.
