Incredible Trove of Jazz Photos Heads to Flickr

Alexis C. Madrigal Jul 30 2010, 2:20 PM ET

Michael Calore points out that the Library of Congress has debuted the first 200 photographs from 1930s/1940s jazz photographer William Gottlieb on flickr. The images show the New York and Washington DC jazz scenes during a golden age.

Gottlieb was both a notable jazz journalist and a self-taught photographer who captured the personalities of jazz musicians and told their stories with his camera and typewriter. His portraits depict such prominent musicians and personalities as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.

The first 200 images in this set show the photos published alongside the photographer's personal recollections in his book, The Golden Age of Jazz. We'll add more photos each month until all 1,600 are in Flickr, with thanks to our Music Division for contributing such dramatic images.

Read the full story at Library of Congress.

Image: Mildred Bailey.

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Alexis C. Madrigal

Alexis Madrigal is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Technology channel. He's the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology. More

The New York Observer calls Madrigal "for all intents and purposes, the perfect modern reporter." He co-founded Longshot magazine, a high-speed media experiment that garnered attention from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC. While at Wired.com, he built Wired Science into one of the most popular blogs in the world. The site was nominated for best magazine blog by the MPA and best science Web site in the 2009 Webby Awards. He also co-founded Haiti ReWired, a groundbreaking community dedicated to the discussion of technology, infrastructure, and the future of Haiti.

He's spoken at Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley, SXSW, E3, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and his writing was anthologized in Best Technology Writing 2010 (Yale University Press).

Madrigal is a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's Office for the History of Science and Technology. Born in Mexico City, he grew up in the exurbs north of Portland, Oregon, and now lives in Oakland.