Pete Seeger – a life in pictures

US folk musician Pete Seeger has died aged 94. From an intimate show at an American Youth Council rally in 1940 to receiving the National Medal of the Arts from Bill Clinton, we look back at the singer and activist's life

  • The folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, who popularised such songs as If I Had a Hammer and John Henry, has died at the age of 94
    Pete Seeger: Seeger performing at a concert in honour of Paul Robeson

  • Seeger performs at an American Youth Council rally in 1940
    Pete Seeger: Seeger sings at American Youth Council Rally in 1940

  • Left to right: Woody Guthrie, Millard Lampell, Bess Lomax Hawes, Pete Seeger, Arthur Stern and Sis Cunningham perform as the Almanac Singers in early 1940s New York
    Pete Seeger: L-R: Woody Guthrie, Millard Lampell, Bess Lomax Hawes, Pete Seeger, Arthur

  • Seeger with his attorney Paul Ross in February 1952, after Harvey Matusow testified in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee that the singer was a member of the Communist party
    Pete Seeger: Seeger with his attorney Paul Ross

  • Pete Seeger, left, with his folk group The Weavers – consisting of Lee Hayes, Fred Halterman, and Ronnie Gilbert – in 1952Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features
    Pete Seeger: Pete Seeger and The Weavers

  • Seeger, a banjo slung over his shoulder, arrives at a federal court in New York in 1961 with his wife Toshi. After his 12-month prison sentence was greeted by worldwide protests, the court of appeals ruled his indictment was faulty and dismissed the case
    Pete Seeger: Seeger with his wife Toshi

  • Seeger conducts an instrument-making session on children's day at the Newport folk festival in1966
    Pete Seeger: Seeger conducts an instrument-making session on Children's Day at the Newpo

  • Seeger holds up a dove on his hat at a Times Square rally protesting about the Vietnam war in 1969
    Pete Seeger: Seeger holds up a dove on his hat at a Times Square anti-Vietnam War rally

  • Seeger, left, performing at the rally for detente at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1975
    Pete Seeger: Seeger, left, performing at the Rally for Detente at Carnegie Hall in New Y

  • Bill Clinton awards the National Medal of the Arts to Seeger at a White House ceremony in 1994
    Pete Seeger: Bill Clinton awards the National Medal of the Arts to Seeger

  • Pete Seeger plays his banjo in 2006 after returning to the charts with the release of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, featuring Bruce Springsteen's versions of standards performed by Seeger
    Pete Seeger: Pete Seeger plays his banjo

  • Seeger with his older brother John Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger perform at the Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders, in New York 2009 in celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday
    Pete Seeger: Seeger with his older brother John Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Rodriguez-Seeger

  • Seeger, 92, left, marching with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle in New York in 2011
    Pete Seeger: Seeger, 92, left, marching with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic

  • Seeger performing at the Bring Leonard Peltier Home concert, in New York in 2012. Peltier is an imprisoned native American activist Photograph: Sipa USA/REX
    Pete Seeger: Performing at the Bring Leonard Peltier Home concert, in New York, 2012
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