Historic Sound Recordings Around the Web

There's an ever-increasing amount of historic recorded sound available out there online (largely for free), so it's never been easier to listen. Enjoy exploring the websites listed below, and we'll also be presenting some guides of our own that draw together particular combinations of recordings you may find interesting, starting with these:

Edison monthly release lists: May 1906 | July 1906 | August 1906 | December 1908
Directories of recordings available online by Arthur Collins, Byron G. Harlan, Collins and Harlan, Harlan and Stanley, Len Spencer, Spencer and Jones, and Edward M. Favor.

Websites

UCSB Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project—Transfers of thousands of cylinders in the collection of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in mp3 format (originally also WAV, but alas, that feature has been scuttled). You can even "adopt" a cylinder or two for digitization if you're so inclined.

The National Jukebox—Transfers of over 10,000 acoustic-era Victor recordings made available for streaming from the Library of Congress under a rare license from an elusive rightsholder.

Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection—Over 1,000 cylinders in mp3 and WAV formats from the collections of the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive at Syracuse University.

The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings—Includes transfers of (mostly) 78 rpm discs in the collection of the National Library of Canada, in mp3 and RealAudio formats. All recordings offered on this site have some connection to Canada, but this covers more than you might think (for instance, any ensemble including the Canadian-born performers Harry Macdonough or Henry Burr). To go straight to the recordings, click here.

DISMARC—DIScover Music ARChives across Europe via this exemplary site, which serves as the audio aggregation platform for Europeana.

FirstSounds.org—Home of the world's earliest recorded sounds, dating back to 1857 and including the famous 1860 phonautogram of "Au Clair de la Lune." To go straight to the recordings, click here.

Glenn Sage's tinfoil.com Cylinder of the Month—At the start of each month, Glenn posts a new cylinder transfer on his site's home page. To go straight to the archive of past Cylinders of the Month (there are over a hundred of them at this point), click here. Recent items in mp3 and RealAudio formats; earlier items only in RealAudio.

Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry—Includes transfers of over 100 Berliner discs in the collection of the Library of Congress, in mp3 format. To go straight to the recordings, click here.

Edison National Historic Site—The official National Park Service website, featuring a selection of recordings in mp3 format. To go straight to the recordings, click here.

Thomas Edison's Attic and the Antique Phonograph Music Program—Two fine radio shows that alternated weekly on WFMU, also available as podcasts. The former has been discontinued and is much lamented, but the archive is still there.

Meloware Antique Phono Record Archive—Ten hours of material, selected sample items downloadable for free, others available through an online subscription at very reasonable rates; I've tried it and it works!

Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies— Includes transfers of over 75 Edison Diamond Discs in the collection of the Library of Congress, in RealAudio and wav formats. To go straight to the recordings, click here.

Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine: Vintage Phonograph Recordings, 1900-1939—Over 125 recordings in streaming RealAudio, plus the online Radio Dismuke.

Little Wonder Music Library—About 100 mp3 files created from Little Wonder discs by Merle Sprinzen.

Red Hot Jazz Archive—Features many early jazz recordings in streaming RealAudio format.

Internet Archive—Includes hundreds of transfers of historic sound recordings uploaded by users in mp3 and ogg formats. Caution: sound quality, documentation, and reliability of information varies widely. To go straight to the recordings, click here.

Robert's Delightful Old Schmaltz—Extensive collection of early sound recordings in RealAudio format, with insightful commentary and illuminating links.

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election—Fifty-nine selections from the important Nation's Forum series, in RealAudio and wav format.

Cylinders on the Web—A sizable collection of cylinder transfers in RealAudio format, founded by the late Trevor Hill and now carried on by Chris Long.

Cyberbee Cylinder Recordings—60+ mp3 recordings from the cylinder collection of Linda C. Joseph.

Percussive Arts Society Library of Cylinder Recordings—Around 60 cylinder recordings of bells, marimbas, etc. in mp3 format. Unfortunately, spoken announcements have been omitted when they existed.

Honkingduck—Offers streaming RealAudio of over 700 old time music (e.g. string band) recordings.

Jazz Age Songs—100+ jazz recordings from the early 1920s in ogg format.

Jazz Old Time—quite a few jazz recordings in mp3 and RealAudio format for free; others require a subscription (which I haven't tried and so can't vouch for).

The Online Guide to Whistling Records—Not so much a "guide" as a collection of 50+ early whistling recordings in mp3 format.

Babson Records—collection of 100+ Edison cylinder recordings in wma format.

Digital History—"educational and non-commercial site designed specifically for history teachers and their students"; collection of 100+ acoustic-era recordings. They also link to some recordings found elsewhere (redhotjazz, honkingduck, etc.).

Vincent Voice Library—A collection of recordings of the voices of various famous individuals. Caution: speaker attributions and dates are not always reliable.

Authentic History Center—Organized by chronological period, this site features a variety of recordings, including many of American political speeches (elections of 1908, 1912, 1920, etc.).

Some ethnographic collections: California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell; Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection; Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection.

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