Lullabies of Birdland: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A 33 1/3 rpm LP vinyl disc (a) with cardboard album jacket (b) of Lullabies of Birdland. The black vinyl disc has a black with silver text “DECCA” label that includes album title, artist, track listings, and copyright information. The front of the album jacket has a black background with a blue tinted photographic image of Ella Fitzgerald. Shown from the shoulders up, she wears an off the shoulders dark top and sings into a microphone with her eyes closed. Across the top is orange and white text with the title [LULLABIES / OF / BIRDLAND] on the left and the artist [ELLA / FITZGERALD] on the right, separated by a central graphic line. The Decca Records logo is in the upper right corner and the track listing, in alternating orange and white text, is printed down the left side. The back cover of the album jacket is off-white with black printing. It features two columns of biographical notes about Fitzgerald along with a black-and-white portrait of Fitzgerald within a birdcage illustration at the right side, above the track listing. The Decca Records logo is at the bottom right corner. At the top margin is a stamp that reads “QUALITY MUSIC CO.” Release number DL 8149.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1955
• Published by: Decca Records, British, founded 1929
• Recorded by: Ella Fitzgerald, American, 1917 - 1996
• Type: record covers
• Type: long-playing records
• Medium: vinyl with ink on paper and cardboard
• Dimensions: H x W (b:album jacket): 12 5/16 × 12 5/16 in. (31.3 × 31.3 cm)
• Dimensions: Diameter (a:disc): 12 in. (30.5 cm)
• Place made: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2011.173.46ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Savanna Vaughn and C. Warfield Clark, M.D.
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © 1955 Decca Records Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.