Some of the first-ever live recordings of music were under a recliner for years. Now, over a century after their creation, they’ve found a new home as part of the New York Public Library collection.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Lionel Mapleson, then the librarian at New York's Metropolitan Opera, did something new: He took an Edison"Home" model phonograph and recorded operas with an orchestra as they were being sung on stage.
"The Mapleson Cylinders, at least in terms of sound recording, are definitely among the most important sound documents of the 20th century," said Bob Kosovsky, a librarian in the music division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and an expert on early opera recordings.In other words — these are some of the first live recordings of music ever.Alex Teplitzky/NYPLSome of the Mapleson Cylinders donated to the New York Public Library by the Mapleson family.
But then Alfred moved them to his own house, along with Lionel's journals — about 50 of them. They're more like scrapbooks, really, with photographs and news clippings pasted in, along with thoughts about both Lionel's daily life and the big news of the day — like the sinking of the Titanic , or the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake .
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