Stumbled upon a treasure trove the other day. According to the Library of Congress Flickr stream, "In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010." Well, hallelujah.
Gottlieb covered the jazz scene in New York for Downbeat from 1938-48, when jazz was king. Many of his subjects have since become icons of American culture: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and that skinny Sinatra kid. One of my favorites of this first batch is a shot of a very young Miles Davis brooding in the background while Coleman Hawkins takes a solo.
The first 200 or so are now up, with more to come every month until all 1600 are online. Here's a slide show link to the collection:
Or you can go here to see for yourself. Either way, it will be time well spent.
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