The world's greatest-ever photo exhibition is 70 years old (and you can still go and see it today!)

Photographer Edward Steichen (standing, center), director of photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art, assembles some of the photographs to be included in the Family of Man exhibition at the museum. The exhibition includes 500 photographs by more than 280 photographers in 68 countries. New York, January 25, 1955.

The Family of Man exhibition has a legendary status in the history of photography. It was first put on in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955, so celebrates its 70th birthday this year.

The idea of the exhibition was the ambitious plan of celebrated photographer Edward Steichen. Steichen had made a name for himself as a top fashion photographer in the 1920s and 30s, and then ran the US government's Naval Aviation Photographic Unit during war, before becoming Director of MoMA's photographic department.