This series consists of 7-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch aluminum phonograph records cataloged with the prefix "R", which most likely stands for "Rat" in reference to the standard linguistic text "Arthur the Rat." The records are numbered R-1 to R-282, with some gaps.

The first portion, around 150 records, numbered R-20 to R-174, are almost exclusively 7-inch discs. They were likely made in 1929 at the Columbia Summer School, which attracted thousands of people from across the country: "The Columbia Summer School, however, draws together some fourteen thousand people from all parts of the United States. This vast body of linguistic material was unpremeditatedly assorted and arranged for us by the Director of the Summer Session, who customarily assigns a tree on the campus, one to each of the states. It was thus possible to select a thoroughly representative linguistic specimens..." (Ayres, 1930). Many of the original envelopes that held the records included two-page questionnaires that include the respondant's full name, address, places lived, perceived influences on language, and thoughts on what constitutes good speech. There are also a few copies of the texts read by the speakers, including one in "Gullah" dialect, one written in a "colored" dialect, and one written in Pennsylvania German. The questionnaires and texts were removed and placed in labeled folders. The original envelopes often contain some notes about the content of the records as well. After the records were rehoused into new sleeves, the envelopes were placed in labeled folders. It appears that race was also noted at least sometimes, with "colored" written on either the sleeve or questionnaire.

Researchers wishing to understand more about the individual speaker should the questionnaire and envelope for biographical and linguistic details.

This contemporaneous article contains more information about these items, in particular R-20 to R-174: Ayres, Harry Morgan, and W. Cabell Greet. "American Speech Records at Columbia University." American Speech, vol. 5, no. 5, 1930, pp. 333–58. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/452813

This series consists of ten double-sided phonograph records of the speech of ten East Texans, recorded by Oma Stanley in New York City. The records were given by Stanley to Columbia University in 1936. The recordings all have the same content, a text called "The Story of Morgan," and a text called "Grip the Rat." The latter was a standard linguistic text, related to the "Arthur the Rat," that was used to study English language dialect.

These recordings are described in a series of articles by Stanley, all titled "The Speech of East Texas", published in in 1936. These articles are derived from Stanley's Columbia Ph.D. thesis. Relevant excerpts describing the material are below.

"The text of all the records is identical. The material of side A and about half of side B of each record was made from words taken from the first three chapters of this study and arranged in the form of a connected story. The second half of side B of each record contains the story of Grip the Rat. This story was used, first because it has proved to be eminently useful, and secondly because many other records of it have been made. It is therefore well known to all students of American speech and these records may be useful later in a comparative study of the speech of different sections of the country."

"The work has been centered in Smith County, Texas, but observations have been made over a much wider territory, including Cherokee, Wood, Van Zandt, Henderson, Anderson, Angelina, Polk, Nacogdoches, Gregg, Hunt, Rusk, Morris, Titus, and Harrison counties."

"The purpose of this study is to describe the common speech of residents of East Texas. This speech may be called a 'Hill Type' of southern speech, a type which is current Virginia, western North Carolina, the hill country of Tennessee and Alabama, and northern Louisiana."

Stanley, Oma. "The Speech of East Texas." American Speech, vol. 11, no. 1, 1936, pp. 3–36. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/452682

This series consists of 10-inch and 12-inch phonograph records cataloged with the prefix "W". They contain standard texts ("The Rat"), stories, and songs. The records were made by Meloney and Greet during a 1930 trip to Virginia, as described in this 1931 article:

"In July 1930, Mr. William Brown Meloney and [William Cabell Greet] took a recording phonograph to Williamsburg, Virginia, and made some 170 records of the speech of the Peninsula and the adjavent regions."

Greet, William Cabell. "A Phonographic Expedition to Williamsburg, Virginia." American Speech, vol. 6, no. 3, 1931, pp. 161–72. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/452157

The series records the speech patterns of students(?) from different parts of the United States.