--- title: Barbecues: Vintage Photos of a Summertime Tradition description: On the Fourth of July, LIFE offers a selection of photos celebrating one of the season's tastiest traditions: the barbecue. canonical: https://time.com/3874080/life-fires-up-the-barbecue/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-08-31T15:16:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:55.346Z og:title: Barbecues: Vintage Photos of a Summertime Tradition og:description: On the Fourth of July, LIFE offers a selection of photos celebrating one of the season's tastiest traditions: the barbecue. og:url: https://time.com/3874080/life-fires-up-the-barbecue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e8458e059c9edf5/69868561e8524b5d8d601cdc/01_00815083.jpg?branch=production&width=1000&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1000 og:image:height: 563 og:image:alt: Backyard barbecue, 1953 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barbecues: Vintage Photos of a Summertime Tradition twitter:description: On the Fourth of July, LIFE offers a selection of photos celebrating one of the season's tastiest traditions: the barbecue. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e8458e059c9edf5/69868561e8524b5d8d601cdc/01_00815083.jpg?branch=production&width=1000&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE Fires Up the Barbecue > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 31, 2012 3:16 PM UTC  Backyard barbecue, 1953. Backyard barbecue, 1953. Gordon Parks—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Aug 31, 2012 3:16 PM UTC If there’s one consolation during the scorching, often unbearably humid days of summer, it’s the prospect of being outdoors with friends and family, swapping stories and enjoying a cold beverage as a huge variety of food cooks on a nearby grill, filling the air with the mouthwatering aroma of a good old-fashioned barbecue. Here, on Fourth of July weekend, LIFE.com offers up a selection of photographs celebrating one of the season’s time-honored traditions: the picnic and barbecue, or barbeque, or BBQ. However you spell it, it still translates as “delicious.” _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Backyard barbecue, 1953. Gordon Parks—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  One of only thirteen American women — known as the Mercury 13 — to participate in NASA's Mercury space program, Jerrie Cobb (left) barbecues in 1959. Ralph Crane—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Jerrie Cobb keeps watch over the grill, 1959. Ralph Crane—TIME & LIFE Pictrues/Getty Images  Barbecue, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1953. Eliot Elisofon—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Family barbecue, 1960. Ralph Crane—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Family barbecue, 1960. Ralph Crane—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Eliot Elisofon—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Beach barbecue, Massachusetts, 1953. Eliot Elisofon—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Beach barbecue, Florida, 1956. Lisa Larsen—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Fraternity picnic and barbecue, UCLA, 1940s. Walter Sanders—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Florida barbecue, 1961. Lynn Pelham—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Vermont barbecue, 1957. Walter Sanders—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  Vermont barbecue, 1957. Walter Sanders—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  John D. Lodge (in the suit), the governor of Connecticut from 1951-55, surveys the scene at a salmon barbecue in 1953. Ed Clark—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images  A gathering of well-dressed guests at a barbecue in Fairfield County, Conn., 1949. 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