The Library of Congress today launched a pilot project, uploading around 3,000 copyright-free images from two collections into a Flickr account. The reason behind the project is to get people to view and tag them on Web sites and blogs. Why? An LOC spokesman explains:

[M]any photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.
We’re also very excited that, as part of this pilot, Flickr has created a new publication model for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” Flickr hopes—as do we—that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions, as well.

From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and—most importantly—wisdom. One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it.

The above photo is of the Waseda University ball club from a 4th of July parade in New York City. The photo is undated, but was taken sometime between 1910 and 1915.

As you can imagine there are all kinds of other great photos (baseball and otherwise) on here. I was drawn to this one, of Japanese boat called the Meiji Maru gone ashore after a typhoon in Japan. This is from the same 1910-1915 time period.

And this little gem is from Korea, of a French nun, posing with several young Korean converts:

(Via Boing Boing)