Photography

2. LIFE magazine dispatched its world-class photographers to cover significant world
events—battles and elections, state dinners and tragedies—but it also took pains
to cover events of more quotidian significance. One example: hugs.
Celebrate National Hugging Day With History’s Most Enthusiastic Huggers

3. Whether between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, children and puppies,
lovers or friends, images of people embracing provide a counterbalance to the graver
images that so often fill the news. On Jan. 21, as National Hugging Day reminds us of
the many psychological benefits of a squeeze, LIFE looks back at its most joyful images
of hugs.

4. UCLA students
Marjorie Henshaw and
Johnny Hessel
embrace one another
at homecoming, 1939.
Peter Stackpole—The
LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty
Images

5. Caption from LIFE: In dry-
land training, one
Jacksonville lifeguard
demonstrates to another
how a violent drowning
swimmer gets a
stranglehold on a would-be
rescuer. Grip can be easily
broken by pushing hard
with both hands on victim's
chin. (1939) George
Karger—The LIFE Images
Collection/Getty Images

6. A soldier hugs his wife goodbye at Penn
Station before he leaves for war, 1944.
Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

7. An American soldier and his English girlfriend
embrace under a tree in Hyde Park, London, 1944.
Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

8. A mother hugs
her son
goodbye, 1947.
Nina Leen—The
LIFE Picture
Collection/Gett
y Images

9. Lt. Col. James P. Devereux
hugs his son upon his return,
1947. Thomas D. McAvoy—
The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

10. Two students hug at Michigan's
Menominee High School's annual
football game against its rivals,
Wisconsin Marinette High School.
Lisa Larsen—The LIFE Images
Collection/Getty Images

11. A man hugs his
daughter, 1949. Nat
Farbman—The LIFE
Picture
Collection/Getty
Images

12. Dancers Roland Petit
and Renee (Zizi)
Jeanmaire hug each
other after performing
in the ballet "Carmen,"
1949. Gordon Parks—
The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

13. Christina Goldsmith
embraces a Weimaraner
puppy, which she took
from a new litter of her
father's stock, 1950.
Bernard Hoffman—The
LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

14. A young couple
cuddles while
sitting in a hole in
the sand on a hot
Independence Day
at the beach, 1950.
Ralph Crane—The
LIFE Images
Collection/Getty
Images

15. A woman hugs her dog,
Bruiser, 1950. Francis
Miller—The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

16. Janet Leigh and Tony
Curtis embrace at a
party celebrating their
marriage, 1951. Ralph
Morse—The LIFE
Picture
Collection/Getty
Images

17. Josephine Baker receives a hug
from columnist and friend
Nora Ray Holt in her dressing
room after her show at the
Strand theater, 1951. Alfred
Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

18. A young mother hugs one of
her sons, 1955. Mark
Kauffman—The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

19. Bonnie Heath and
Jackson C. Dudley, co-
owners of a race horse
named "Needles," hug
as the horse flashes
across the finish line
to win the 1956
Kentucky Derby. Hank
Walker—The LIFE
Picture
Collection/Getty
Images

20. A child cuddles a puppy as part of
a hospital's animal therapy
program, 1956. Francis Miller—
The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

21. Desi Arnaz embraces Lucille Ball at the new
home of their TV production empire, Desilu
Studios, 1958. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE
Picture Collection/Getty Images

22. Olympic track star Wilma
Rudolph hugs her grade-school
teacher, 1960. George Silk—The
LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

23. Mrs. Malcolm S. Carpenter
hugs her children, 1962.
Ralph Morse—The LIFE
Picture Collection/Getty
Images

24. Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile Adams,
embrace in the kitchen of their Hollywood home,
1963. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture
Collection/Getty Images

25. Frank Sinatra shares a hug at Warner
Bros. Studio, 1965. John Dominis—
The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

26. A hug during a Twiggy look-alike contest in Stockholm,
1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

27. Astronaut Eugene Cernan hugs his daughter Tracy, 1969.
Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

28. Shirley MacLaine hugging fellow
delegate after McGovern victory
at the Democratic National
Convention, 1972. Bill Eppridge—
The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty
Images

29. Photo: Jim Palmer/AP, Sven Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images, Getty Images, Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux

30. When Sammy Davis Jr. surprise-hugged President Richard
Nixon at the 1972 GOP convention, it apparently
reflected poorly on both of them. Photo: Jim Palmer/AP

31. At the June 1979 SALT II summit in Vienna, as David Satter recalled in the Times, “[Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev greeted [Jimmy] Carter with the words, ‘God will not
forgive us if we fail.’ Photo: Carter Bettman/Corbis

32. "That Bill Clinton -- such a people’s
person. Look at how he immediately
connects with a random fan in the
crowd."– thoughts of American TV
viewers, November 6, 1996. Photo: Getty
Images

33. During a trip to Ramallah in 1999, First Lady and (soon-to-be senate candidate) Hillary Clinton gave Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser, a hug and a kiss just after Arafat had made a
speech accusing Israel of gassing Palestinians and poisoning their water supply. Photo: Sven Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

34. February 1998: Nelson Mandela
(L) hugs British supermodel
Naomi Campbell in front of
American actress Mia Farrow,
British model Kate Moss (second
from left) and model Christy
Turlington AFP/Getty Images