The Archive of Recorded Sound, in collaboration with the Stanford Media Preservation Lab, recently completed the digitization and cataloging of 684 analog recordings of The Standard Hour radio broadcasts that occurred between 1938 and 1955. This extensive project was generously funded through the Recordings at Risk program sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).
The Archive of Recorded Sound announces two new appointments.
Staff at the Archive of Recorded Sound have, for the first time, created a complete inventory of the ARS Sheet Music Collection. This culmination of over 13,000 published titles was generated through various donations during the Archive's first 60 years (1958-2018). The vast majority of titles within the collection are popular music scores published in the United States along with publications from England, France, Italy, and elsewhere.
By Beth Ryan and Jill Sison
The Stanford Media Preservation Lab now supports cylinder transfers! With support from the Archive of Recorded Sound, SUL Tech Support, and Digital Library Systems and Services, SMPL was able to purchase an Endpoint Audio cylinder player.
The Stanford piano roll scanner has progressed from a prototype to a functional, production level machine since the last report in spring of 2017. As reported earlier, the scanner is based on a design by Anthony Robinson, a piano roll expert in England.
The Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound is pleased to announce completion of the portion from the Robert Baxter Collection pertaining to the American-born Greek soprano, Maria Callas (1923-1977). During her lifetime, Callas was a fervent interpreter of the bel canto technique in the works of Donizetti, Rossini, and Bellini at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, and other notable venues. Her dramatic interpretations of Verdi and Puccini are often regarded as some of the finest interpretations of all time.
The Howe Collection of Musical Instrument Literature has now been processed and is available for research. The collection was created by Richard J. Howe, an oil company executive and mechanical engineer as well as a collector of mechanical musical instruments and associated literature. The Howe Collection of Musical Instrument Literature, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of its kind, documents the development of the music industry and the manufacture of pianos, organs, and mechanical musical instruments. The materials in the collection include catalogs, books, magazines, correspondence, photographs, broadsides, advertisements, and price lists. The Howe collection was originally donated to the Institute of Piano Music at the University of Maryland and later transferred to Stanford to support the Player Piano Project.