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Thomas Edison NHP News Release
For Release: Monday April 13, 2015, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Contact: Jerry Fabris, 973-736-0550 x 48
Email: [email protected]

Edison Talking Doll Recordings Released

WEST ORANGE, NJ – Today the National Park Service announces the release of historic sound recordings made by Thomas Edison on phonograph cylinders during his effort in 1888-1890 to market a "talking doll." The recordings document the voices of young women hired by Edison to recite nursery rhymes for the dolls. The sounds are available online in MP3-format at: http://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/photosmul ... 8-1890.htm. This online presentation brings together every Edison Talking Doll recording that is currently available in digital form, eight recordings in total, four of which are first-time releases. Each is about 20 seconds in duration. Also featured are new essays by researchers Patrick Feaster and Bill Klinger.

On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 1:00 p.m., Joan and Robin Rolfs, authors of the book Phonograph Dolls and Toys, will lead a 90-minute program exploring the history and sounds of Edison's talking doll. Two of the Rolfs’ own talking doll recordings were recovered recently at Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) in Andover, Massachusetts. Robin Rolfs will explain the technology of the talking doll; Joan Rolfs will describe the dolls used by Edison; and National Park Service Museum Curator Jerry Fabris will play rare sounds from doll phonograph cylinders. A special display of talking doll artifacts will be on exhibit. The program will be held in the Laboratory Complex at Thomas Edison National Historical Park, 211 Main Street. The entrance fee to the park is $7.00, children under 16 are free. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Reservations can be made by calling 973-736-0550, ext. 89.

In August 2014, NEDCC recovered audio from three talking doll cylinders, including one from Thomas Edison National Historical Park. NEDCC's audio conservation laboratory is equipped with the "IRENE-3D" system, a new scanning technology for audio recordings on grooved media, developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in collaboration with the Library of Congress. NEDCC recently completed a pilot project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to develop, test, and demonstrate a digital reformatting service.

Historians have had few opportunities to hear talking doll recordings, because surviving examples are so uncommon. Prior to 2011, just two Edison doll recordings were widely available online in digital form. A commercial failure for Edison in 1890, the talking doll was the world's first recorded sound entertainment device manufactured for sale to the public. Talking doll cylinders are the earliest commercial sound recordings. Edison’s factory manufacturing effort that produced these records was probably the first time people were paid to perform for sound recordings, so the young women hired by Edison are arguably the world's first professional recording artists. Talking doll records carry the earliest known recordings of women's voices made in the United States.
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To learn more about NEDCC and the IRENE-3D technology, visit https://www.nedcc.org/.

Patrick Feaster (email: [email protected], web: www.griffonage.com, tel: 812-331-0047) is a specialist in the history, culture, and preservation of sound media. A co-founder of the First Sounds Initiative and three-time Grammy nominee, he received his doctorate in Folklore and Ethnomusicology in 2007 from Indiana University Bloomington, where he now works as Media Preservation Specialist for the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative.

Bill Klinger is a consulting engineer who researches the history and technology of sound recording in the cylinder format. He is a founding member of the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

Joan and Robin Rolfs have written several articles for local and state newspapers and co-authored a book titled 'Phonograph Dolls that Talk and Sing’ (2001). They are authors of the resource books ‘Phonograph Dolls and Toys’ (2004), ‘Nipper Collectibles’ (2007), ‘Nipper Collectibles Vol. II’ (2011), and ‘Nipper Collectibles Vol. III’ (2015). Other research publications include: ‘Lewis Lueder, Official Photographer to Mr. Thomas A. Edison’, and ‘Edison Little Folks Furniture 1926-2005’. Joan has a BS degree in Business/Interior Design. Robin has his BS and an MS degree in Technology Education. They are owners of Audio Antique LLC, a business that specializes in phonographs, phonograph dolls, the RCA & Victor Nipper dogs, and related antiques from the Victorian period to the 1940s.

Thomas Edison National Historical Park is a National Park Service site dedicated to promoting an international understanding and appreciation of the life and extraordinary achievements of Thomas Alva Edison by preserving, protecting, and interpreting the Park’s extensive historic artifact and archive collections at the Edison Laboratory Complex and Glenmont, the Edison family estate. The Visitor Center is located at 211 Main Street in West Orange, New Jersey. The Laboratory Complex is open Wednesday through Sunday from10:00 am to 4:00 pm. For more information or directions please call 973-736-0550 ext. 11 or visit our website at www.nps.gov/edis .

Rene,
Do you know how many dolls are still in existence?

A very interesting post.
Truely a device in its infantcy!

James.

Amazing how well the cylinders sound, also especially after enhancement. How they retrieved the sound off the first cylinder on the list, pictured - seriously out of shape is amazing. WELL DONE!

Amberola wrote:Do you know how many dolls are still in existence?

Unfortunately not. There were only a few hundred sold in May 1890 before they were pulled from the market. After that there was six years of litigation, at the end of which the dolls remaining in inventory were stripped of their phonographs and sold as plain dolls.

Based on years of discussions I think there are only 15-20 that survive intact with phonograph, and only a very few of those still have the original cylinder. Relatively speaking, there are a lot of incomplete dolls that were originally sold without the phonograph. Those turn up fairly often. One sold on eBay a week or so ago for about $2200. There have been replica phonographs made over the years, some of which are high quality. None are available today.

It's hard to really know how many are out there since interest obviously crosses over between doll and phonograph collectors. There are undoubtedly some complete ones in doll collections that we have never heard of. That said, I have supplied pictures and other information to a couple of doll collector magazines and gotten quite a lot of feedback from people in that hobby.

I find it interesting that of all the phonographs shown on my own website, none attract anywhere near as much attention as my Edison doll. I'm constantly getting requests to use those pictures. It's been in a lot of magazines, including National Geographic and Time, and more books than I can count. But those are only the people who had the courtesy to ask. My pictures have been downloaded and reposted on hundreds of websites without permission.

I need to get in touch with the Rolfs once they finish their presentation. I know of one more original record that survives in a collection about 30 miles from me.

(Edit to fix glaring error: 'with' instead of 'without'.)

Thanks Rene. I have read all the information that is out there about them. I saw one at an auction many years ago with the replica phonograph for it. For some reason it was pulled from the auction. I think Haily on the board has one also. Could you post a picture of yours? I would put a watermark on the photo to keep others from stealing it.
Thanks again.

Here's the full rundown on mine with pictures.

I think it's too late to watermark them, the horse is out of the barn so to speak.

I had a request last month to use the tintype at the bottom of the page, which is a modern image I made a few years ago. I do think it's good looking picture but I hope it doesn't get represented as original to the era. I really hate that in most modern documentaries, especially History Channel but even on PBS: shooting new footage and then converting to grayscale and adding dust and scratches so it looks old. It's hard to know what is real and what is fake, and I'm afraid a lot of people end up believing they're seeing something filmed 100+ years ago.

I love the picture you made. It really looks good. I know that that is hard to do.

How wet plate collodion photographs are made.

A lot of work but it's fun.

TinfoilPhono wrote:How wet plate collodion photographs are made.

A lot of work but it's fun.

I have looked at your page many times and am amazed that you can still make the pictures. And I think a working camera from that period wouldn't be cheap or easy to find?