Picture This: Sounding the Call, for Sounds

Sounding the Call, for Sounds
By Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division.

A good research quest often leads you to unexpected finds and drops you right at the edge of a rabbit hole. While working through the topic of listening (the subject of a previous blog post), two World War I posters caught my eye, and my curiosity demanded to know more.

I had known of book drives to keep soldiers entertained, though had no knowledge of record drives, often known as "slacker record drives." Here we see one of the posters calling for records, and another showing the need to raise funds to purchase equipment and records:

Now for some music. Poster by Charles Buckles Falls, 1917. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g10035

Now for some music. Poster by Charles Buckles Falls, 1917. http://bit.ly/2v1A2lA

War-zone home for our boys "over there"… Poster by John F. Butler: Globe Lithographing Company, New York, 1917. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g08377

War-zone home for our boys "over there"… Poster by John F. Butler: Globe Lithographing Company, New York, 1917. http://bit.ly/2P3uIaK

Posters helped drum up interest and support for collecting and distributing listening materials (records, needles, phonographs) to soldiers. Browsing through historic newspaper articles in Chronicling America provided insight on how individual states and towns advertised local participation. This 1918 article from The Bismarck Tribune discusses an event after a flu outbreak canceled previous plans:

Recruiting of Slacker Record Army has Begun. Detail from The Bismarck Tribune, November 18, 1918, p. 5 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042243/1918-11-18/ed-1/seq-5/

Recruiting of Slacker Record Army has Begun. Detail from The Bismarck Tribune, November 18, 1918, p. 5 http://bit.ly/2uWzKfS

Did these advertisements and town events pay off? The American Red Cross Collection helped me connect some dots to determine how popular and available phonographs were during the Great War.

American Red Cross Rest House at Milan. Soldiers listening to phonograph. Photo, 1918. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/anrc.07722

American Red Cross Rest House at Milan. Soldiers listening to phonograph, 1918. http://bit.ly/2X9uf9T

Two nurses of the Via Giusti Home for Refugees of the American Red Cross holding two of the tiny refugees… Photo, 1919. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/anrc.02835

Two nurses of the Via Giusti Home for Refugees of the American Red Cross holding two of the tiny refugees. The busy phonograph in the American Red Cross Via Giusti Home. Milan does its best to wipe the sound of German Guns from the little ears. For he was the place of refuge for hundreds of Italian Mothers and children who fled from ruined homes along the Isonzo …, 1919. http://bit.ly/2IcKwan

The Red Cross's caption for this photo really spelled out the need for records and equipment, seen here at a canteen in Italy.

At an ARC "Posto di Conforio." The gramaphone is in great demand. Photo, 1918. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/anrc.01968

At an ARC "Posto di Conforio." The gramaphone is in great demand, 1918. http://bit.ly/2X9ufGV

A research topic discovering a poster with a phonograph quickly led to a deeper understanding (and knowledge) of slacker record drives, thanks to Library of Congress resources. Now that's quite a harmonious find.

Learn More:



Published April 11, 2019 at 01:46PM
Read more on https://loc.gov
Library of Congress

Manage this Applet


Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more