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Edison National Historic SiteThomas Edison sitting at his desk talking with an employee.
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Edison National Historic Site
The Recording Archives

The archive at Thomas Edison National Historical Site includes approximately 48,000 disc and cylinder records produced by Edison in West Orange, New Jersey, between 1888 and 1929. Many of these, including unreleased and experimental recordings, have been at the Laboratory since Edison's lifetime. Some of the earliest examples of recorded sound in existence are preserved within this unique collection.

The subject matter of the recordings is mostly music, covering genres popular in the United States during Edison's era. Spoken word recordings include vaudeville comedy sketches, documentary speeches, educational lessons, and motion picture dialogue soundtracks. Experimental recordings document research carried out at the Edison Laboratory to develop recorded sound technology.

We have compiled a selection of sound files in the MP3 format from the archive and arranged them by genre.

 
The talking doll that Edison sold had a ceramic head and metal body.  

Did You Know?
Was Teddy Ruxpin the first talking doll? Think again. Some of the first phonographs that Thomas made were actually talking dolls. The dolls were 18" tall and each had a very small phonograph in its body. The dolls repeated nursery rhymes. You could even buy dolls that spoke different languages.

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Last Updated: April 27, 2009 at 13:26 EST