The Unwound Third > Jam Session

Nick Bergh on NPR

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Stuart:
"Mystery recordings will now be heard for the first time in about 100 years"

Here's the link:

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1090819310

Slack:
Cool and Interesting Stuart.  I like stories where modern technologies can help.  I wonder if any of the wax cylinders have any kind of live musician doing any kind of music. That would be big.

Stuart:
Good question, Slack. I'll check to see if there's any info about the collection available on-line.

Edited to add this interesting article from 2017 at IU:

https://blogs.iu.edu/mdpi/2017/09/06/using-the-endpoint-audio-labs-cylinder-playback-machine/comment-page-1/

Stuart:
I didn't find anything at the NYPL site and searches for "Mary Dana..." brought up links to the NPR piece. Many libraries have vast amounts of uncataloged materials and it can take a while--years or decades--for the staff to evaluate every item and enter it into a library's catalog. Meanwhile donations come in and the ever growing push down stack keeps expanding. One of the librarians at the UW said it was like shoveling sand against the tide.

The problem of course is the lack of space and limited resources, human and otherwise. Some materials that in retrospect are deemed invaluable were assigned to the dust bin of history. Trade publications are an example. What they could tell us about history--cultural, economic, industrial, institutional and everything in between--has been lost because they were not considered worth saving once they passed their shelf life. But as usual, I digress...

So hang on to your collection of "The HVAC Repairman's Weekly" (or whatever), 'cause you never know...

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