There are two things that have always fascinated me, photographs and sound recordings. In a lot of ways, it seems like some sort of actual magic that we can take a photograph of a single moment in time and then look at it later, or that we can record a voice or a sound and listen to it later. I love looking at old photographs and noticing the clothes, the facial expressions, the subtle body language in people in the backgrounds- it is fascinating. Old sound recordings hold this sort of fascination for me too. Listening to the way people talk, their pauses, their “go-to” words, background sounds- fascinating.
The problem with sound recordings though is that over the years we have changed the way we make recordings. In 1857 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the phonautograph, which basically took a picture of sound. Then in 1877 Thomas Edison invented the phonograph which made a sound recording of sound. Since then there have been several popular recording methods used and many of them have fallen by the wayside. Occasionally in my travels, I come across an Edison sound cylinder (not the proper name for those, I am sure), or an 8 track tape, reel-to reel tape, or various other out of style recording types and I always wonder what moments in time are saved on them. Most times I never find out, but sometimes I do….
Probably because of my fascination with sound recordings, I have for the past almost 50 years kept up with my father’s old reel-to-reel tape recorder. It is very heavy and has been moved from house to house and over the years has played many reel-to-reel (and 8 track tapes) that I have found. This week while at work in the Archives in McConnell Library, I was brought several reel-to-reel tapes and the question of whether anything could be done to find out what is on them. I brought in my machine and have had a fascinating time listening to voices from days long gone. The machine is heavy and unweildy, so I decided to leave it here for a while, I figured it might come in handy again one day, and it didn’t take long before it did.
Our college radio station, WVRU 89.9 FM used to produce and air a show called Other Voices in which interviews of visiting speakers, or of various faculty members would be aired. This being a university, we often have authors, activists, critics, reporters, musicians, artists, politicians etc as guest speakers, so the radio show interviews are a quite important part of the archives. This month is Women’s History Month, and so I thought it might be fun to look through our archives of Other Voices and pick a few of the interviews that might be of interest and digitize them. The show was recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and as mentioned above, I happen to have a reel-to-reel machine sitting on my desk. Playing old tapes is sometimes scary, they tend to be delicate and were sometimes recorded in varying speeds and volumes- still though, being able to listen to an interview done 30-40 years ago made it all worth while. So have a listen!
Gloria Steinem– a leader in the American feminist movement, journalist, activist, author, and public speaker.
Bella Abzug– feminist, activist, author, U.S. Representative, co-founder of the American Women’s Movement.
Dorothy DeBolt– known for bringing attention and acceptance to the needs of handicapped children in public schools, and for educating the American public about the need for adoptive homes for special needs children.
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