Scope and Content Note
The Emile Berliner Collection includes disc recordings, textual materials, photographs, artifacts, and a film. The textual materials consist of more than 1,000 items including correspondence, notes and papers, books, addresses, newspaper and magazine articles, catalogs, diaries and journals, pamphlets, patents, and scrapbooks dealing with Berliner's work and personal life, as well as his philanthropic endeavors. The photographs are both studio portraits and informal snapshots of Berliner, his family, his associates, and his inventions. Artifacts include telephone, gramophone, and laboratory equipment, along with several acoustic panel pieces and material samples.
The recorded sound component of the Berliner Collection consists of unpublished zinc records, some of them experimental (1892-1898); unpublished discs made of various materials for both experimental and private uses; and published celluloid, rubber, and shellac Berliner Gramophone Company pressings made in the United States (pre-1900), Canada, and Germany (pre- and post-1900). The published records represent one of the first successful attempts to mass-market and commercially distribute popular sound recordings. Some of the unpublished discs in the collection feature the voices of Berliner and various family members. Also available are post-1900 Victor records; 78 rpm records published by other companies; and several vinyl LP recordings.