An Early Phonograph Collector

        Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM!

       By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum

A phonograph was first demonstrated by Thomas Edison in 1877. His device recorded sound vibrations onto a tin foil cylinder which could then be played back.  In the 1880’s, Emil Berliner improved on Edison’s design by producing the gramophone. This machine played flat discs rather than cylinders. These inventions allowed music to be in homes in a ways and individuals and families started purchasing these new gadgets and began collections of the cylinders or records.

A Millinocket 1950’s newspaper article tells of the collection of a local man who had been collecting records and various phonographs for a several years. A blurry photo in the newspaper shows Charles Holden of Millinocket with a portion of his collection of old records, cylinders and phonographs which spanned the era from Edison’s invention of the phonograph to the modern long-playing records that were popular when the article was written (1950’s).

Holden told the story that when he was 18, “a man would arrive in town with a phonograph and a big horn and a suitcase full of records and give a two-hour concert.” Listeners might buy one of the new inventions for their home.  Holden purchased one of the machines…it played a two-minute record. Later, he equipped the machine to play four-minute records. He also had a machine to make home recordings.

Holden’s first collection held 250 records including, “You Will Have to Wait ‘Til My Ship comes In” and “Red Wing.” He also had recordings of speeches by William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft (two presidential candidates).

In 1936, Holden’s collection was destroyed by fire. Soon after, he started rebuilding his collection. In Boston, he purchased an old Edison cylinder photograph (made 1908). He continued collecting, finding items in attics and at auctions and amassed 850 of the old cylinder recordings. His collection included a cylinder phonograph or graphophone (1903 model), another 1903 model with a small horn, 3 Edison cylinder models with large morning glory horns, an Edison disc machine (1920) and 325 disc records.  

The MHS Society museum has on display an original Edison phonograph with brass horn speaker! It plays the Edison wax cylinders that came in cardboard containers. Some of the cylinders are a bright blue color. This phonograph works, dates from 1905 and belonged to the Harry Rush family. Also in the collection is a floor model Columbia Grafanola with many of the 78 rpm records from the old days. A Silvertone radio/phonograph from the 1950’s was donated by Dan Daley. In the collection is an interesting metal fiber needle cutter used to produce the wax cylinders. There are several records (2 sided, one sided, 78 rpm) and numerous wax cylinders.