Important Early Victor Documents

[Skihawx]

While it may feel good. There is no need to handle them. I can see wanting to rotate, inspect in different light, or feeling weight and texture on a phonograph or phonograph part. But this is a two dimensional piece of paper. It is the information that is of value. But I'll admit it, I'd like to own them. I did not know the person who owned them or whether he allowed any of the authors of phonograph books view them. I was wondering where they had been for the last 120 years? Were the uncovered when GE was moving out of the old VTMC buildings? I've heard so much stuff was tossed and that some was recovered from dumpsters.

[Inigo]

Nowadays, of they scan them, they're available to anyone they the internet. I've seen and read the acts of the VTM management group from the early xx century on the web!

[shoshani]

I kind of like how the earlier documents here have elaborately engraved letterheads for Consolidated and Johnson, and then by 1903 the Victor letterhead is as plain and unadorned as the Early American region of its birth, using a typeface that William Caslon himself may well have cast. Or even Ben Franklin.

[cmshapiro]

It would be great to see all of these documents donated to the Johnson Victrola Museum or another worthy institution.

Garret

Yea well that sounds nice but what happens is those institutions generally file pieces like this away and they are only available to “scholars” (i.e. you better have a PhD), never to see the light of day again of people who really understand and appreciate them.

But let's not forget that reputable museums take extraordinary care to preserve documents such as this. Certainly much more than the "average Joe". It is, after all, considered ephemera.

Steve

Of course there are plenty of reputable and responsible museums, but those are often the ones that are unwilling to work with "the public" for access to their collections for study. The more levels of bureaucracy, the less open they are.

I was just reading this am a story from a few years ago when a museum in Delaware managed to tip over what is likely the earliest Otto gas engine manufactured in the US (1883). It is the only known survivor, and was originally sold to The Franklin Institute. The "curatorial and conservation staff" proceeded to crudely weld together broken pieces, and then they media blasted off all of the original paint, and repainted the machine. They bragged that they photo-chemicaly tested the original paint (of which was about 90% intact and quite good), and then wound up painting it with off the shelf black spray paint. The machine currently is hidden in their basement storage and many advanced collectors who would like to study it have been denied access.

If you ask some of the experienced collectors out there who have worked with museums, or tried to, unfortunately the closed door policy is far more common than the open. The Library of Conference is quite different, in fact most major libraries that hold historic documents are quite more open to the public than museums. It is very important to differentiate between museum and library, they are not the same. And a good example is, The Henry Ford museum is almost impossible to get access to their off display collections (unless you are a "proper researcher" with the correct credentials), but their Benson Research Library is open to the public. Same exact scenario for the Smithsonian American History Museum, their collections are very much closed off, but the library of (original) historic documents is available to anyone via appointment.

I know a lot of very experienced and extremely knowledgable collectors in the early technology collecting field who have tried to study museum collections who have stories of being turned away, mores than the stories of access being granted.

It is true for private collections as well, some share widely, some do not. I am much more of an early electric lighting collector than phonograph collector, but I have many important early documents in my collection. They are regularly shared with whoever wants to see them, good luck with that with most museums.

[Stephen_Madara]

It would be great to see all of these documents donated to the Johnson Victrola Museum or another worthy institution.

Garret

They most likely already have copies in their archives as these were reproduced at the time and sent out to members of the trade.