The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

As most of you know, the educational series of blue Amberols are all pretty hard to find. To my surprise, I have seen both the Lincoln and Washington speeches for sale on eBay in recent weeks. Are the speeches more common than the dictation, math problem, etc. cylinders? If so, how much more common?

From what I've seen, the speeches turn up with some regularity, but I have never seen any of the other cylinders ever.
I would say the speeches sold fairly well to regular patriotic households for their historical & adult inspirational/entertainment value, where as math problems, dictation & spelling cylinders were merely educational aids of very limited use with no real adult entertainment value, and were not the kind of cylinders a family would purchase to listen to over & over again.

Thanks for the info Shane. I wasn't sure whether the speeches were ever sold directly to the public or not, but it appears probable that they were.

I saw 2 of the dictation cylinders offered on ebay around 2002-2004, one by itself and one buried in a large lot of Amberols. As I recall, the one that sold by itself went for something like $400. I've never seen any of these in person.