American Speech Recordings collection, 1930s

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Creator:

Greet, William Cabell, 1901-1972, Ayres, William Louis, 1874-1947, and Stanley, Oma, 1897-

Extent:

circa 730 phonograph records (approximately 10 boxes)

Language:

English

Scope and content:

A series of recorded samples of American dialects from the 1930s. The project was primarily conducted by Barnard professor William Cabell Greet and Columbia professor Harry Morgan Ayres.

Many of the recordings are of people speaking standard texts that were used for linguistic analysis, in particular the "Arthur the Rat" text.

Many records with similar linguistic content are also found in the Speech Laboratory Archives collection.

Several items in this collection contain language that can be considered offensive or harmful.

Catalog record:

View in CLIO

Local call number:

AmericanSpeechRecordings

Custodial history:

Records were donated to the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum. Transferred from the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum to RBML, 1971.

Related material:

This is one of four collections of recorded audio that was managed at the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, and from 1971 at the RBML, under the loose heading of "Speech Recordings." The four groupings are the American Speech Recordings collection (phonograph records, primarily of specific texts, made in the 1930s to show dialect differences in American English); the Speech Laboratory Archives (phonograph records, primarily experimental and non-commercial, made in the 1930s, with widely varying content but mostly prominent people such as politicians, authors, poets, and academics); the Speech Recordings Collection (phonograph records, primarily commercial recordings and radio broadcast transcriptions, made between 1925 and 1965, with a very wide variety of content); and the Tape Recordings Collection (audiotape recordings, consisting of both transfers from phonograph records from the other three groups, as well as original content recorded on tape. Content varies widely and includes 160 reels of tapes of radio broadcasts on Hungarian radio stations during the 1956 revolution.).

The Linguistics Dialects records (https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/archives/cul-18336139) also contain similar materials.

Other finding aids:

A card catalog is found in the RBML at Ref 42G. The card catalog arranges dialects geographically by state and subdivides by local place names.

Alternative form available:

Many of these discs were transferred to audio tape, and/or digitized. For details please see the series and item level description below.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is located onsite.

Access to the audio is only possible through digitized surrogates, which are linked in the finding aid. Only a small portion of the collection has been digitized. If you wish to see the physical item, please email rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Location of this collection:: Rare Book & Manuscript Library

RBML Home Page
6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027, USA
Before you visit:: Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.

Contact:: rbml@library.columbia.edu

Collection