Uploaded media going to wrong folder

When I add media through the web UI for my wordpress installation, the files go to
/<wordpress install folder>/wp-content

however, the HTML references to the uploaded media on the wordpress pages try to refer to the uploaded media in
/<wordpress install folder>/wp-content/uploads

The upshot of this is that when I add an image to a post, the image appears as a broken link. If I manually move the image(s) to the /uploads/ subfolder (which I made by hand), then the images appear correctly in posts.

It looks to me like I must have a configuration problem someplace; what’s the easiest way to make this behave as it should?

Thanks.