Guide to the Bell Labs Early Stereo Collection ARS.0118
Finding aid prepared by Franz Kunst
Archive of Recorded Sound
© 2011
Braun Music Center
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Stanford University
Stanford, California, 94305-3076
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Title: Bell Labs Early Stereo Collection
Dates: 1979-1980
Collection number: ARS.0118
Collection size:
1 box
: 6 12" open reel tapes ; 3 LPs ; one metal part
Repository:
Archive of Recorded Sound
Abstract: Material related to two 1979 Bell Telephone Laboratories albums titled "Early Hi-Fi ; Wide Range and Stereo Recordings Made
by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1930s - Leopold Stokowski Conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1931-1932."
Language of Material: English
Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for
assistance.
Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.
Bell Labs Early Stereo Collection, ARS-0118. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Master dubs on open reel tape, commercially released LP pressings, and a metal part for the Bell Telephone Laboratories albums
titled "Early Hi-Fi ; Wide Range and Stereo Recordings Made by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1930s - Leopold Stokowski
Conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1931-1932."
The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski began performing live on NBC's radio network in 1929, but Stokowski
was unhappy with the fidelity of these early broadcasts, and approached physicist Harvey Fletcher at Bell Laboratories seeking
ways to improve the transmissions. Bell Labs had been involved with developing improved sound recording and reproduction since
1915, and was willing to record Stokowski and the orchestra among other test subjects, and so in in 1931 and 1932, one hundred
experimental high fidelity, long playing, and stereophonic recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra were produced. These recordings,
being excerpted passages rather than full works, were experimental and not intended for commercial release at the time. However,
over forty years later, engineer Ward Marston transferred the original metal stampers to tape, and in 1979 Bell Labs celebrated
these early technological advances with a vinyl issue in two volumes. As part of this release, Stanford University hosted
a special conference and received a commemorative box containing a metal part (of unknown origin, perhaps from the 1930s session,
but more likely for one of the 1979 discs).
Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Philadelphia Orchestra.
Sound--Recording and reproducing
Box 1
1. Early Hi-Fi ; Wide Range and Stereo Recordings Made by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1930s - Leopold Stokowski Conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1931-1932. [Vol.1] BTL-7901 ; Vol.2 BTL-8001 1979
Box 1
Box 1
3. special presentation box for Stanford 1980-05-20
Physical Description:
2 12" open reel tapes,
1 metal part
Commemorative box presented to Stanford University Libraries by The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. Includes a metal
disc "mother," two open reel tapes, and a program for a presentation at Stanford May 20, 1980, featuring original engineer
Arthur C. Keller.