MENLO PARK, N.J. (WHTM) — We’re used to sound recordings. Music (in multiple genres), audiobooks, phone messages, recordings of family history, alert boops and beeps on our phones…even the happy ...

Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park whose genius ushered in a new era of light and sound for humankind, invented the phonograph at his New Jersey laboratory on this day in history, Aug. 12, ...

Thomas Edison seated beside a phonograph in 1921. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need ...

Edison's phonograph was a sensation. Premiering Jan. 27 on PBS. On December 7, 1877 Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph at the New York City offices of the nation’s leading technical weekly ...

If you think of records as platters, you are of a certain age. If you don’t remember records at all, you are even younger. But there was a time when audio records were not flat — they were drums, ...

The American Indian Wars continued across the nation, and The Washington Post was weeks away from publishing its first paper. In the 1800s, music patrons could only listen to whatever was played live.

Imagine if your couch or your coffee maker suddenly started talking to you — or perhaps launched into the chorus of “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” What would your reaction be? Consider that, ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. This is a stock certificate for 50 ...