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I'm curious as to what the earliest record sleeves were and how they looked.

This is the oldest in my collection, a choir record "Blessed Assurance," recorded in May 1906.

Looking at the list of Red Seal artists on the sleeve, Calve and Farrar didn't record for American Victor until 1907, although they did make sides that were released on the Gramophone label and/or the 5000 series before 1907.

Anyone else with something contemporaneous or even earlier?

Edit: I apologize that the photo is not straight-up, so to speak. It is when I click on it. Evidently, there's room for improvement on my part as to loading photos!

I've never seen a Victor sleeve that early.I did once see an early Columbia sleeve.edisonplayer.

The earliest covers (the term "sleeve" was not used in connection with records until the LP era) were for Berliners.

A couple of early single sided record covers from my collection, advertising machines of the period.

I very much appreciate the examples provided, especially for the Berliner.

As to "sleeves" and "covers," there are more than 1400 mentions of the term "sleeve" on this forum. The gratuitous "correction" as to nomenclature for my very simple question reminds me as to why one should err on the side of caution in respect to using terms that are common and understood; as well as to avoid pedantry.

During the 78 era there were several terms in use, including Case, Container, Cover, Envelope, Holder, Jacket and Protector.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written use of the term "Sleeve" was in an advertisement in the USA in 1951.

As a compromise, I propose to call these things slovers or alternatively, cleeves. Both sound much more technical, cryptic and erudite than mundane covers or sleeves. A cleeve could even be traced to a basket, or a container.

Rastus10 wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 2:11 pm "gratuitous "correction""

Really? I found it to be more of an "informative correction".