--- description: In 1967, TIME devoted a cover story to explaining just what exactly the hippies wanted and why. Six pages of photos accompanied the story. title: This Week in History: Summer of Love and the Hippie Movement image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc600e5843f6ff2a1/6988d381e76ad28a7862e1c6/1101670707_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Media](/tag/media/) ## Media Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 50 Years Ago This Week: When the Hippies Took America  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 3, 2017 1:00 PM CUT  The July 7, 1967, cover of TIME The July 7, 1967, cover of TIMECover Credit: GROUP IMAGE  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 3, 2017 1:00 PM CUT _Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME._ [_Catch up on last week’s installment here._](http://time.com/4823442/1967-glassboro-summit/ "undefined") [**Week 27: July 7, 1967**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/pages/ "undefined") When it comes to 1967, year of the summer of love, one image looms especially large in the American popular imagination: hippies. And here they are, in [a cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/22/ "undefined") that delved into the phenomenon that had kids dropping out, parents fretting, tourists heading to San Francisco to gawk and cultural observers wondering what it all meant. In the space of about a year and a half, they’d become “a wholly new subculture” with hippie hubs “blooming in every major U.S. city from Boston to Seattle, from Detroit to New Orleans” and maybe 300,000 people somehow connected to the movement. But what exactly _was_ the movement? --- > “” --- The story isn’t short, but this is one where it’s probably worth reading the whole thing — or, at the very least, checking out the [amazing six pages of color photos](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/23/ "undefined") that accompany the story. Another treat comes in the[ letter from the publisher](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/15/ "undefined"), which reveals the outfits worn by TIME’s correspondents in an attempt to fit in while researching the hippies. Not everyone succeeded: “San Francisco Bureau Chief Judson Gooding was gauche enough to wear a suit and tie to a celebration in Golden Gate Park, and was suspected of being a ‘narco’ (narcotics agent).” **Spoiler alert:** Here’s proof that spoilers are not a new problem. A reader [wrote in](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/14/ "undefined") to suggest that TIME’s “spoilsport \[movie\] reviewer should have the last reel withheld from him, ’cause old blabbermouth can’t resist giving away the story.” **A first:** Though race relations in the U.S. were usually a serious concern for the magazine, this week offered the opportunity for a [more optimistic kind of story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/21/ "undefined"), as Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr. was picked to be the nation’s first African-American astronaut. **Powerful painters and body shamers:** Two items on [this week’s “People” page ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/44/ "undefined")are clear parallels for modern news. First, there are paintings by President Dwight D. Eisenhower; President George W. Bush’s oil paintings were compiled in a [book](http://time.com/4688206/george-w-bush-painting-book/ "undefined") earlier this year. And though the idea of[ body shaming ](http://motto.time.com/4396276/emily-ratajkowski-feminism-ideal-body/ "undefined")may be something for the Instagram era, that’s what model Twiggy’s mom was speaking out about when she told the press that a doctor who hadn’t actually treated her daughter was spouting “rubbish” when he said she looked unhealthy. **Canines on the couch:** Also in the realm of “things you [thought](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2079795,00.html "undefined") were invented more recently,” [here’s an exploration](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/page/80/ "undefined") of the burgeoning 1960s world of psychotherapy for dogs. **Great vintage ad:** This week in technology that never really took off, here are [bottles that require no opener](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-07/spread/62/ "undefined") — but because they have ring-pull tabs, not because they twist off. **Coming up next week:** [The King of Jordan](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-07-14/pages/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4835155/1967-hippies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4835155/1967-hippies/"},"headline":"50 Years Ago This Week: When the Hippies Took America","datePublished":"2017-07-03T13:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:20:30.185Z","description":"Also in this issue: Twiggy and the invention of pet psychology","url":"https://time.com/4835155/1967-hippies/","keywords":["Media"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc600e5843f6ff2a1/6988d381e76ad28a7862e1c6/1101670707_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc600e5843f6ff2a1/6988d381e76ad28a7862e1c6/1101670707_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"July 7, 1967","caption":"July 7, 1967","creditText":"Cover Credit: GROUP IMAGE","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/media/","name":"Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4835155/1967-hippies/","name":"50 Years Ago This Week: When the Hippies Took America"}}]}] ```