Music recorded in September 1897
September 1897 was a month marked by events across the United States, at the intersection of urban infrastructure, empire, immigration, and popular culture. On September 1, 1897, the Tremont Street subway opened in Boston, Massachusetts, marking a turning point in urban transportation as the oldest underground railway tunnel in North America. On September 10, 1897, the Lattimer massacre occurred in Latimer, Pennsylvania, marking a turning point in the history of the labor movement, as a clash between striking immigrant miners and law enforcement. On September 12, 1897, the Battle of Saragarhi took place on the northwestern frontier of the British Raj, marking the legendary defense of a small garrison. After September 11, 1897, the Republic of Hawaiʻi began collecting signatures for the Kūʻē Petitions against the Annexation of Hawaii, visualizing public opinion against annexation through a large number of signatures. On September 21, 1897, the New York newspaper The Sun published an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church (1839–1906) titled "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," which has since been widely reprinted as an iconic text in the popular media. Also on September 2, 1897, Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) filed a patent application for electric power transmission, sparking a research race in high-frequency technology that led to the next era of communications and power technology.
Confirmed recordings this month: 0
Summary of information on recordings made in September 1897
If we limit our examination of the history of recording up to September 1897 to the extent that primary sources can be used to confirm it, we can see that while disc gramophones and cylindrical phonographs were running side by side, patents, business development, and the establishment of mass production systems were progressing.
Berliner's gramophone-related patents and international expansion
On September 17, 1897, Emile Berliner (1851–1929) applied for a patent for the gramophone sound box, indicating that improvements to the disc playback mechanism were being made at the same time. The document also documents the events that led to Emile Berliner (1851–1929) sending business associates to England in 1897, confirming that the international expansion of the disc recording business was in the preparatory stages.
- https://patents.google.com/patent/US637196A/en
- https://www.loc.gov/collections/emile-berliner/articles-and-essays/gramophone/
Edison's establishment of a system for mass production of cylindrical recordings
Edison National Historical Park in the United States National Park Service indicates that Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) organized the National Phonograph Company in 1896–1897 and began mass-producing cylinder recordings of music and entertainment. Additionally, museum collections of an Edison cylinder duplicating machine (c. 1897) confirm that the equipment supporting the duplication and distribution practices existed at the same time.
- https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/photosmultimedia/the-recording-archives.htm
- https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co117387/edison-phonograph-cylinder-duplicator-c-1897
