Howard Morehead was a highly regarded Los Angeles still and video news photographer. Over the course of his career, he photographed many of the important jazz musicians of his time, including Ray Charles (album covers), Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, among others. The collection consists of photographs, taken by Morehead, of jazz musicians in Los Angeles. Finding aid in process. Former title Howard Morehead Collection of Photographs and Papers

Howard Morehead was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas where he graduated from Topeka High School. Upon graduation, he joined the Air Corps, becoming a pilot in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1946, after his tour of duty he moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. He transferred to Los Angeles City College were he earned a degree in photography. He later studied journalism at Los Angeles State College. He attended the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, to further study motion picture photography. Howard joined the staff of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper in 1950, later freelancing for various newspapers and magazines. He became the first West Coast staff photographer for Johnson Publishing Company. He subsequently became known for the many covers he photographed for Ebony magazine and for the Jet magazine centerfold. In 1970, Howard became the first African American in Los Angeles hired as a staff cameraman for television station KTLA. After a year, he moved to KABC-TV where he spent seventeen years as a cameraman before retiring.

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