Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society

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"Sound in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction"

November 29 and 30, 2007

Conference poster

Thursday, November 29

Panel I: Fidelity
1:30-3:30 p.m.

  • Shawn VanCour, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    "Engineering the New Radio Sound: 1920s Radio Loudspeakers and the Quest for Tonal Fidelity"
  • Eric Barry, Rutgers University
    "Audiophile Spectacle and the Technological Sublime in the 1950s"
  • Commentator: Emily Thompson, Princeton University

Panel II: Sound Communities
3:30-5:30

  • Alex Cummings, Columbia University
    "Jazz Collectors and Copying as Preservation"
  • Angela Blake, Ryerson University
    "10-4 Good Buddy: Citizens Band Radio, Race and Masculinity in 1970s Los Angeles"
  • David Novak, Columbia University
    "Cassette Culture, Sonic Democracy, and the Social Formats of Underground Media"
  • Commentator: Fath Davis Ruffins, Smithsonian Institution

Friday November 30

Panel III: Listening and Listeners
8:30-10:30

  • Tony Grajeda. University of Central Florida
    "Early Mood Music: Edison and the Intrumentalization of Listening"
  • David Goodman, University of Melbourne
    "Distracted Listeners"
  • Christine Ehrick, University of Louisville
    "Women's Voices, Women's Ears: Some Thoughts on Radio and the Gendered Construction of Sound"
  • Commentator: Elena Razlogova, Concordia University

Panel IV: Radio
11:00-1:00

  • Bill Kirkpatrick, Denison University
    "Early Local Radio and the Reorganization of Space in Modern America, 1920-1934"
  • Michael Stamm, University of Minnesota
    "The Sound of Print: Newspaper Ownership of Radio and the Sonic Promotion of the American Press, 1920-1941"
  • David Hochfelder and Ann Pfau, Rutgers University
    "Her Voice a Bullet: World War II Radio Propaganda and Legend"
  • Commentator: Derek Vaillant, University of Michigan

Panel V: Business
2:00-4:00

  • Court Carney, Texas A&M University
    "Broadcasting Modernity: Duke Ellington and the Confluence of Art, Technology, and Commerce"
  • Chris Rasmussen, Fairleigh Dickinson University
    "'The People's Orchestra:' Jukeboxes and the Re-orientation of American Popular Music in the 1930s and 1940s"
  • Keir Keightley, University of Western Ontario
    "Capitol of the World: E.M.I., Capitol, and the Internationalization of the U.S. Sound Recording Industry, 1955-1968"
  • Commentators: Phil Scranton/Susan Strasser
  • Summary:
    David Suisman, University of Delaware
    Charles McGovern, Smithsonian Institution

The conference is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Lunch is $15 and dinner $40. We recommend the Best Western Brandywine Inn (800-537-7772) for overnight accomodations, as it will provided shuttle service to and from Hagley during the conference. The hotel also will pick up and drop off at the Wilmington AMTRAK station. To register or obtain more information contact Carol Lockman at 302-658-2400, ext. 243, or clockman@hagley.org. Maps and directions are available on the library website.

View a list of previous conferences sponsored by the Center