6.0284 Great Britain's National Sound Archive (XPosted) (1/77)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 7 Oct 1992 15:51:56 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0284. Wednesday, 7 Oct 1992.

Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 11:39 EDT
From: "Peter Graham, Rutgers U., (908) 932-2741" <GRAHAM@ZODIAC.BITNET>
Subject: Information on Great Britain's National Sound Archive

Originally from:
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 21:29:55 EDT
From: Paul Romaine <70541.3427@COMPUSERVE.COM>

Sound Archive of GB
The following is re-posted from the Compuserve book collecting forum.
I hope some people, particularly researchers into modern authors, may find it
of interest.

Paul Romaine

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#: 269455 S10/Books and Media [COLLECT]
05-Oct-92 09:56:03
Sb: #269325-#Defacing Books
Fm: Philip Ormond 100013,1162

The National Sound Archive in GB is a great resource and seem to be falling
over themselves to help anyone who enquires (they are not well known and
consequently underused).

They are not a lending library nor, indeed, may they provide copies of the
bulk of their stock but they have some really juicy bits and pieces.

I'm fairly sure that they now take the BBC's throwouts (pity that that was not
always the case) and record all the productions of the National, RSC, Royal
Court Theatre, etc, etc (and have done since the 1960's).

Here is the text of a message I posted in April which has the contact details:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----> BEATLES AND QUEEN VIC <-----

If anyone is interested in collecting Beatles material (they were a British
rock group some decades ago <s>) the following book should be of interest.

"APPLE & BEATLES COLLECTABLES"
"an international guide to the values of The Beatles and associated
records including full solo career and Apple label discographies"
by Adams, Mike 128pp
1991 Perry & Perry, Corsham, GB, ISBN 1 872446 01 9

This information was sent to me by the National Sound Archive - a collection
in London that does for recorded sound what the British Library does for
paper. They provide an excellent and underused service; anyone can listen to
anything free of charge by making an appointment with their Listening
Service. The collection, on cylinder, disc, tape, laser disc, and video,
ranges from the 1890's to today's pop, from bird-song to the New Orleans Jazz
Festival, from the 19th century theatre greats - Irving, Tree, Ellen Terry,
Bernhardt to the Royal Shakespeare Company, from the European Parliament to
the Polish government-in-exile (WWII).

They have recently published "The Lost Voice of Queen Victoria" providing
circumstancial evidence that a rare cylinder may be the only surviving
recording of Queen Victoria (died 1901).

There is a small permanent exhibition of historical recording equipment and
they are situated close to the Victoria & Albert Museum, Science Museum and
Natural History Museum. Well worth a visit

National Sound Archive 29 Exhibition Rd, London, SW7 2AS
Tel: +44 71 589 6603 Fax: +44 71 823 8970

The BBC address is:

B B C Radio & Head Office
Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London W1N 3AG
Great Britain

Tel: +44 71 580 4468

and they loathe researchers, I believe <s>.

Philip