Music recorded in August 1895
In August 1895, London launched the Summer Promenade Concerts, institutionalizing urban entertainment as a "series of consecutive nights." In Madagascar, the Second French Expedition suffered from rainy season marches and disease, revealing the reality that imperial expansion was limited by medical care and transportation. In biochemistry, the deaths of Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (1825–1895) and Johann Friedrich Miescher (1844–1895) marked a turning point in nucleic acid research. In the United States, the shooting death of John Wesley Hardin (1853–1895) was reported, further cementing the strong connection between violence and popular journalism.
Confirmed recordings this month: 0
Summary of information on recordings made in August 1895
The public database includes a home recording dated August 1895. A contract document concerning cylinder duplication technology (dated August 7, 1895) has also been made public, confirming that issues regarding the technology and rights underlying the "production" and "duplication" of recordings were evolving simultaneously.
An example of home recording (August 22, 1895)
The Alexandria Digital Research Library has a brown wax cylinder home recording of "Down at the Cross" dated August 22, 1895. The singer is said to be D.B. Broad (date of birth and death unknown), but the source marks her with a question mark, making her identity uncertain. The recording includes an announcement and references to the Edison phonograph, further indicating the "self-recording" nature of home recordings at the time.
- https://alexandria.ucsb.edu/catalog/ark:/48907/f3b2780r
- https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/48907/f3b2780r/
Contract document for cylinder duplication technology (August 7, 1895)
The digital edition of the Thomas A. Edison Papers contains a contract document dated August 7, 1895, concerning cylinder recording and duplication technology, signed by Adolph Melzer (years of birth and death unknown) and Thomas Hood Macdonald (years of birth and death unknown). This document confirms that the handling of "duplication," a prerequisite for distributing recordings, was already documented at the time, making it an important primary source for understanding the history of the recording industry in August 1895.
- https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/QP003-F
- https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/QP003431
Recording projects in the summer of 1895 as revealed by correspondence records
The Thomas A. Edison Papers, a collection of letters from Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) covering the period from April 19, 1894 to August 15, 1895, has been made publicly available in the digital version. By tracing communications, transactions, and technological developments from the period up to August 1895 through a collection of contemporary documents in the form of letters, the collection provides a foundation for examining the connection between recording technology and business.
