Theo Wangemann was the world's first professional sound recordist, and was hired by Thomas Edison in 1888 to produce a set of musical recordings for the wax cylinder phonograph. Wangemann worked at Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory in 1888-89. Interestingly enough, Wangemann is perhaps best known (until now) for his work recording Johannes Brahms at the piano in 1889. In 2011, the...

Cylinder recordings, which predated vinyl records, were the first commercially produced sound recordings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On this site, hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Cylinder Audio Archive, readers will find more than 10,000 cylinder recordings that cover the gamut, from popular songs to vaudeville acts to opera, and more. To...