With the release of the audiobook version of Wicked Little Secrets, I decided to explore old recordings. There’s a unique intimacy in hearing someone’s voice. To me, it’s far more personal than gazing at their still, silent photograph. The crackles and noise in these aged recordings make it seem like you are listening through a portal in time. If you enjoy these recordings, I highly recommend visiting The University of California Santa Barbara Cylinder Archive and checking out their extensive collection of old music, speeches, and conversations. The Ancestral Voices Collection at the Library of Congress is also fantastic.
Walt Whitman
“America”
* Research article about this recording in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Florence Nightingale
Greetings to the dear old comrades of Balaclava
Booker T. Washington
Excerpt from his 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech (1908)
Alfred Tennyson
“Charge Of The Light Brigade”
Lieutenant E.H. Shackleton
My Polar Expedition (1910)
Sarah Bernhardt
Phedre. La Declaration (1910)
Robert Browning
Excerpt of “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix”
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Congrats! And yes, I adore that narration. Thank you for sharing the other snippets as well–sound offers a portal to the past in a way that few mediums do (perhaps the aural equivalent of holding and reading a handwritten letter).
Thanks. These snippets were kinda hard to find, which makes them a little more special. A gift.