When an amateur singer crosses paths with Thomas Edison in 1899, the resulting recordings are a glimpse into the world of  fin de siècle America.

Many thanks to the University of California, Santa Barbara Library, which has made these amazing recordings available through a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.5 License.

You can explore UCSB's collection of wax cylinder recordings and read about the history of recordings here. And you can donate to the upkeep of these recordings here.

For more information on this episode and more Artifactual podcast content, visit artifactualpodcast.com.

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