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LCT306 Culture and Media (Sound Studies) winter 2024

Historical instruments, equipment and sounds

History of Audio/Music-playing Devices:

Museum of Obsolete Media (Audio Media)

Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music

See also their History of Recordings section and explore other links of the CHARM site.

Library & Archives Canada: Virtual Gramophone (Canadian Historical Recordings)

Smithsonian Exhibition: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound

Royal College of Music (London) online exhibitions featuring historical instruments and recordings)

The Met (New York): The Art of Music Through Time Exhibition (historical instruments images and recordings of)

Encyclopedia overviews of music-playing devices:

Personal Music Players

MP3 Players

Walkmans and iPods

(Music) File Sharing

Radio Broadcasting

Personal Stereo (*navigate to p. 578* of Encyclopedia of 20th Century Technology)

For each of these, it's suggested that you follow the "see also references" or search within the same e-reference publication.

Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio
(best to click on "Read Online" at top right then search within the e-encyclopedia)

Musical instruments: history, technology and performance of instruments of Western music

Historical Sound Recordings:

Library of Congress: National Jukebox (historical recordings)

University at Buffalo Library's Retro Media: Memory (and Memories) Lost

Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound 

Not only music, but sound/soundscape recordings (see example: Leo T. Hurwitz, Here at the water's edge, a voyage in sound).