In 1905, about two decades after Thomas Edison patented the cylinder phonograph, an affordable new device was first marketed in France that allowed people to record a one-minute voice message inscribed on a specially coated postcard. Called a Sonorine, designed to be sent through the postal system, this technology has been largely forgotten today. However, Princeton University Professor Thomas Y. Levin has been amassing the largest known collection of Sonorine postcards. While a handful of the recording machines have survived, playback of these recordings today on that apparatus risks irreversible damage to the fragile surface grooves etched into the thin, century-old plaster coating on these extremely rare cards. This research data repository documents the remarkable Princeton project to retrieve what is recorded on those cards.
Click the picture above to browse the collection.