William McKinley - 1896 campaign speech

Many of the supposed voice recordings from the Robert Vincent Library at MSU are not authentic - not even Groliers. Alas, there is no genuine recording of Wm McKinley.
The record catalogs of the period advertize many "celebrities" for sale, but the technology of the day did not permit that for political figures - just studio elocutionists. Such mass recordings did not become feasible until the molding process, and certainly little before 1908.

Allen

There's strong reason to suspect the 1901 McKinley recording. The timing of it is highly suspicious. Granted studio elocutionists made many recordings. Are we to also suspect records of Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison? Perhaps. But the Harrison voice at the very least was not done by a strong public speaker. That MIGHT be genuine for that reason alone. The 1896 McKinley recording would not have the timing element working against it. Well, who's to say? More evidence is needed.

I agree that the Harrison recording may be genuine since there is some evidence that he visited the Bettini 'factory' premises at the top of the Judge Building in NYC. In addition, there are contemporary newspaper accounts of such a record being made. But there is no evidence at all for the McKinley and Cleveland records, and some companies (like Columbia) occasionally admitted that they used elocutionists like Len & Harry Spencer to issue their (studio) celebrity series.

Allen

I looked through 1901 newspapers on line to find any report that McKinley made a recording while at Buffalo. Nothing caught my eye in September 5 and 6 papers. He was shot on the 6th, so papers after that were filled with assassination reports. Again, nothing to support the recording's authenticity. I've sent e mails about the recording to the Voice Library and elsewhere. Response: "We don't know."

Makes you wonder about a lot of 1890s celebs supposedly on records.

Paul

Well, the existing cylinders by P. T. Barnum, Florence Nightingale, and Sir Arthur Sullivan appear to be genuine and are part of the authentic incunabula of recorded sound. There are even some mangled words of the actual Queen Victoria which yielded a book on the subject, as well as Tchaikovsky. But McKinley, Cleveland, and Whitman do not make the cut, nor does a supposed 'Mark Twain.'

Allen
phonobooksDOTcom

Sullivan I know of (I'm a G&S fan). I've heard W.S. Gilbert's voice dimly on a home recording device (c. 1905). Queen Victoria I thought ordered all records of her voice smashed, but I see a link on line for this. I've heard Twain was never recorded.

Re presidents, I've read Rutherford B. Hayes had his voice recorded just after the phonograph's invention in 1877. But the recording is not extant. Earliest sound I've heard comes from 1888 (except for a recently discovered c. 1861 one).

Actually Twain recorded himself in his effort to transcribe his new novel, The American Claimant, in a series of 200 brown wax cylinders. But these have not survived. Some attributed to him are actually by Wm Gillette. Queen Victoria, as you say, usually ordered her recording(s) smashed (no one can command the Monarch), but perhaps 16 words survive on a Tainter cylinder. Edison visited the White House in April 1878 with his new invention, but the tinfoil has indeed been lost.

Allen

A Mid-Atlantic accent has nothing to do with the Mid-Atlantic states (as someone said below, that it meant an accent from NJ and the surrounding states). Instead, it refers to "in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," in other words, an accent that is part Northeast American and part basic-English-accent.

"preservation of the home market and reciprocity with foreign markets". This is still true today and still not happening under that fool Obama.