![Look at America](/sites/wam.umn.edu/files/2023-05/look_at_america-1-thumb-530x516-82643.jpg)
FEATURED ESSAY
Look was a popular bi-weekly magazine that ran from 1937 to 1971 and had an emphasis on photography rather than articles, a bit like Life Magazine. In the files, I found a number of photographs from an exhibition titled Look at America, but I have found no other documentation about this exhibition—I can't even tell with certainty what year it took place in the University Gallery. The introductory wall text reads:
An exhibition of LOOK magazine photographs prepared by the editors of LOOK in co-operation with the American Federation of Arts. Theme titles from the poetry of Archibald MacLeish.
I do know that from 1946-1956, the Look editors published a series of books called Look at America, so I can guess that this exhibition stemmed from the books and eventually made its way as a ready-made show to the University Gallery. (Perhaps we'll uncover more information on this exhibition in the files we have yet to comb through!)
![Large photo on a wall](/sites/wam.umn.edu/files/2023-05/look_at_america-4-thumb-150x145-82649.jpg)
![Large photos in a hallway](/sites/wam.umn.edu/files/2023-05/look_at_america-2-thumb-180x147-82652.jpg)
![Large photos on the wall](/sites/wam.umn.edu/files/2023-05/look_at_america-3-thumb-150x146-82646.jpg)
Update: The exhibition occurred in 1957 (thanks to Rebecca for finding the date in the Minnesota Daily archives). We also found the poster for this show: another gem:
![Look at America poster](/sites/wam.umn.edu/files/2023-05/poster_look-at-america-thumb-250x156-87820.jpg)