About

The ability to record and reproduce sound is currently so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted. However, in relation to other means by which the human record has been recorded, the invention of sound recording is rather recent, having been preceded by various forms of art, writing, the printing press, photography, and film (silent, of course).

This library focuses on important milestones in the development of sound recording, namely the invention and use of acoustical/mechanical recording as seen in the phonautograph, the phonograph, and the gramophone, as well as the invention of magnetic recording demonstrated by wire and tape recorders. Furthermore, this library grants access to recordings produced using these aforementioned devices and techniques. This small digital library of recordings, artifacts, texts, images, and videos aims to grant access to the early history of this important means of preserving the human record.  This library is intended for use by recording enthusiasts, audiophiles, or anyone interested in sound recording and/or the history thereof. 

Browse all Sound Equipment items

Browse all Sound Recordings

Disclaimer

This digital library is an educational project of a student from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Library and Information Science Program, class LIS 676 Creating Digital Libraries. All of the content used was purposefully aimed to be under public domain and open access license, and collected from other digital libraries that have explicitly stated such terms of reuse of content. This digital library was created only to demonstrate learning objectives of the class. This digital library was under no circumstance intending to breach copyright. In case you think have done so, please contact us ASAP, and we will remove the questionable content in the shortest possible period.