Library of Congress's Blog, page 190

Unlocking Sounds of the Past

You may recall reading about some early audio recordings of Alexander Graham Bell being recently recovered. Thanks to Library of Congress technology, these recordings and others can now have a new life. The following is a story by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library's newsletter, The Gazette, on how the institution is working to accomplish this.

In the basement of the Madison Building, Peter Alyea sits at a desk and takes millions of photos of the insides of the grooves of old recordings.

Peter Alyea displays a digital image of the grooves of an old recordings captured by IRENE./Abby Brack Lewis

The images, reassembled on Alyea's computer monitor, reveal in detail every curve cut into the floor of every groove – and provide the key to extracting sound from recordings unheard for decades and preserving those sounds for future generations.

The pictures are the product of IRENE/3-D, a system that uses digital imaging to retrieve sound from historical recordings made on discs and cylinders that might otherwise be unplayable.

IRENE allows damaged recordings – a disc broken into separate pieces, for example – to be reassembled digitally and for the sonic debris of pops, skips and distortions to be cleared away just as a technician might Photoshop a blemish from a photograph.

Over the past year, Alyea, a digital-conversion specialist at the Library of Congress, served on a multi-institution team of scientists and curators that used IRENE at the Library to extract sound from some of the oldest recordings ever made – a group of experimental discs produced by Alexander Graham Bell whose contents hadn't been heard since they were made about 125 years ago.

The work is important to preserving the nation's sonic cultural heritage.

A study released by the Library in 2010 found that major areas of America's recorded sound heritage already have deteriorated or remain inaccessible to the public.

Most audio formats deteriorate over time: Discs warps, and both discs and cylinders break or degrade.

That's where IRENE steps in.

"We know they're going to fall apart, and there are things you can do to increase longevity," Alyea said. "But we know they will go away, and we want to get the information off of them."

IRENE is Born

The idea for IRENE was conceived when Carl Haber and Vitaliy Fadeyev, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, heard Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart discuss on a radio program the loss of cultural heritage through the chemical breakdown of recordings.

Why, they wondered, couldn't we just make high-resolution images of a disc and use the pictures to extract the data embedded in the grooves? Why couldn't software then convert that data into sound?

Haber and Fadayev experimented with the idea over 2003 and '04. Eventually, a workable system was born and named IRENE – after the first record from which they managed to extract sound, "Goodnight, Irene" by the Weavers.

(The name then was reverse-engineered into an acronym: "Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.")

IRENE uses high-resolution cameras to capture images of the grooves of recordings. Software then converts those images into sound./Abby Brack Lewis

With IRENE, a light shined onto a disc or cylinder reflects into a high-resolution camera mounted overhead. The camera makes images of the lateral motion of the groove – more than 2 million images for a typical 78 rpm recording. Software analyzes the motion of the grooves shown in those images, then converts the data into sound.

The system also helps preserve fragile historic material: Because a camera reads the grooves of a recording, the delicate discs are spared the wear inflicted by repeated physical contact of a stylus.

Alyea read a report about Haber and Fadeyev's work and had his own eureka moment: He realized the approach could be used to extract sound from broken discs and that IRENE could be automated to produce digital copies of recordings in large numbers.

"All these things suddenly flew into my head when I read what they were saying," Alyea said.

Alyea and Haber discussed the possibility of a collaboration between Berkeley and the Library, and the first device – fabricated at the lab – was installed at the Library in 2006. The original 2-D system later was installed at the Library's Culpeper facility and a second 2-D/3-D version – better at reading the grooves of cylinder recordings – was installed at the Madison Building in 2009.

'Ba-ro-me-ter, ba-ro-me-ter'

Over the past year, Alyea, Haber, Berkeley scientist Earl Cornell and Shari Stout and Carlene Stephens, curators from the Smithsonian Institution, worked at the Library to retrieve sound from a group of experimental recordings made by Bell at a Washington, D.C., laboratory about 125 years ago.

In the 1880s, recorded sound was a hot field of invention, and competition was intense among great innovators such as Bell, Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner.

Bell and his colleagues at the Volta Laboratory in the District tried many techniques and media to record sound: tin and wax cylinders; discs of metal, glass, plaster and paper; a tape of wax-coated paper strips wrapped around two reels – kind of a primitive tape recorder.

"Bell was working in this highly competitive, highly lucrative field of high-technology communications, much as people are expanding those boundaries today," said Stephens, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

To protect himself against potential claims against his patents, Bell later sealed those experimental recordings – along with his lab notes and evidence of date, such as newspapers – in tin boxes and deposited them for safekeeping at the Smithsonian. He much later gave about 200 more of the recordings to the Smithsonian.

For decades, the recordings sat mostly untouched – and entirely unheard.

"Because the recordings were considered unplayable, they were placed in a remote part of the storage room and nobody was using them for research, for sound, for anything," Stephens said.

In 2008, Stephens read about the Library's work with sound recovery and contacted Library officials to discuss a joint project to extract sound from the Bell recordings.

The project team chose six recordings – deemed most likely to yield sound – to submit to IRENE.

"These are one-offs," Stephens said. "They are recordings before a standard style of medium and recording technique was developed. Each one needs special attention. Each one is fragile."

The team eventually was able to extract sound from each of the six recordings.

A recording made on a brass disc covered with wax yielded a recitation from "Hamlet." A glass photodisc features the word "ba-ro-me-ter" enunciated over and over. Another glass disc yielded trilling, the date of the recording (March 11, 1885) and "Mary had a Little Lamb."

This large glass photodisc contained the word "barometer" repeated over and over./Abby Brack Lewis

"It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck," Stephens said. "It was so thrilling. It was so eerie. It was so much a glimpse into a time period we have never heard from before, ever."

Saving 78s

With IRENE, the Library wanted not just a tool that could "play" previously unplayable recordings, but also a fairly automated system that would allow technicians to conduct a high-volume transfer of 78-rpm recordings to digital files without time-intensive work by operators.

"The model of being able to make fast copies non-invasively with staff not specifically trained to know all the ins and outs of audio engineering was very attractive," Alyea said.

The goal was to produce in large numbers digital audio files that could be used for access and, in the best case, preservation – and eliminate the need to ever play a disc again.

That's been a challenge: Recordings come in many different formats, shapes and sizes, and the set-up and software frequently would need tweaking to accommodate the multitude of types.

But technicians have succeeded in producing sound files good enough to provide the public access to the material without an engineer spending a lot of time on each recording: The system has been used to make digital copies of hundreds of rare recordings from the Library collections.

"It proved to be even more reliable than I thought it would be," Alyea said. "I actually thought it would have more problems. They basically have no problems with the capture side."

The work of extracting sound from the Smithsonian material presented the opposite idea: The set-up and software frequently were modified to suit individual discs or cylinders.

The reward, however, is to give listeners the opportunity to hear recordings that otherwise might never have been heard again.

"The prospect of being able to save these recordings, save the sound heritage, save the sound culture of civilizations all around the world is pretty exciting," Stephens said.

More information about the Bell recordings – and clips of sound extracted from them – can be found here.  

More information about IRENE is available here.

Straight to Your Inbox

Almost everything the Library of Congress does, you can get an email about it. And, no, I'm not making a "Portlandia" reference either. From our potpourri of services to general news to topic specific information – even this blog – you can be only one click away from the latest updates the institution has to offer.

If you haven't done so already, make sure to sign up for our email subscription service here so you won't miss a beat. This is just another of our continual efforts to get information out there in the most useful way possible.

Lobbying for the Silver Screen

The following is a guest post by Brian Taves, senior cataloging specialist in the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

A new gift to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division reminds us that movies are more than just the image on the screen and the sounds that accompany them. They are also the visit to the theater, and the advertising heralding the movie and the photos of scenes and stars.

"Son of the Sheik" (1926)/Library of Congress

Many of these are just as common today as they were early in the 20th century; movie posters outside of theaters remain a way to lure possible patrons into a show. Also enduring are movie stills, showing scenes from the movie or its stars, or sometimes shots of the production, most typically used in press notices accompanying reviews. Other types of advertising art have nearly vanished, however, and among the most artistic of these were lobby cards.

Lobby cards were unique for combining the graphics created to accompany a movie with still images. The advertising art was usually presented stylistically around the borders, highlighting an inset photo. While stills themselves usually measured 8×10 and were primarily in black-and-white through the 1970s, lobby cards were most often in color, measured 11×14 inches and typically issued in sets of eight.

"Heroes for Sale" (1933)/Library of Congress

This standard form allowed many variables. Usually the inset scenes showed a highlight of the movie. Sometimes, however, they emphasized portraits of stars, especially when posed to highlight the on-screen love interest. The graphics created to promote the movie could be manipulated in many different ways, and sometimes each of the cards would have unique stylization in addition to the separate scene or star image.

The fact that lobby cards were in color, at a time when most of the movies (and stills from them) were in black-and-white, established the lobby card as a distinct medium for promotion. With both the drawn poster and the photograph blended into a single work, lobby cards often achieved a unique potential. The fact that, like the stills, lobby cards were small enough to be held gave lobby cards a more intimate relationship as relics of the movie.

From 1910 through the 1980s, lobby cards were distributed to theaters along with posters, stills and advertising. Usually theater owners were instructed to return them to movie distributors, for use in subsequent screenings, or to destroy them. Thus, most lobby cards, like posters, did not long survive their original printing.

"Blondie" (1938)/Library of Congress

Lobby cards did have one advantage, however. Because of their size, they were printed on card stock rather than flimsy paper. Perhaps this, and their very colorful nature, allowed some to survive and to become a form of movie collectible.

In the 1950s, the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division began to collect lobby cards and posters and to augment its collection of stills and pressbooks (the manuals given to theater owners upon booking a film with information on promotion) through an arrangement with National Screen Service. As supplier of such advertising to many studios, National Screen Service's warehouse had become packed with items likely never to be used again for movies that had been sold to television. For three decades, until National Screen Service's demise, the Library gained a treasure trove, documenting presentations about movies to theatergoers.

"The Black Pirate" (1926)/Library of Congress

Many donations have also helped to expand the division's lobby-card holdings. Recently, noted collector Dwight Cleveland, who had previously given an extraordinary collection of glass slides used to promote upcoming movies from about 1910 to the 1950s, has given the Library several hundred lobby cards from 1910 through the 1930s. Spanning many genres and stars, the collection serves to vividly illustrate the variety and artistic potential of lobby cards as a means of promotion.

 

Pretty in Pink

Soon all of Washington, D.C. will be blossom-crazy thanks to the upcoming National Cherry Blossom Festival –  a signature event for the capital region – set for March 20 through April 27. This year, all the stops are being pulled out as the celebration marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of trees from Tokyo to Washington.

If you haven't yet had the chance to see the blossoms, you should. The formation of trees around the Tidal Basin is quite magical. It's like walking amidst clouds of pink and white. As the petals shed, you have nature's perfect confetti.

Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2007. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith. Prints & Photographs Division.

At the annual news conference held this morning at the Newseum, organizers highlighted the bevy of festival-related programming. The morning's big announcement: Chief Horticulturalist of the National Park Service, Robert DeFeo, predicted the cherry blossoms will peak this year between March 24 and March 31. Official events include a fireworks display on April 7 and the Japanese street festival and annual parade on April 14. More information can be found at the festival's official website.

The Library of Congress is also celebrating the milestone with an exhibition titled "Sakura: Cherry Blossoms as Living Symbols of Friendship," opening on Tuesday, March 20, in the Graphic Arts Galleries on the ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C. The exhibition runs through Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012. More information can be found here.

Additional free events at the Library will include a series of gallery talks on the exhibition, a lecture by former Ambassador John Malott on the 1912 gift of the flowering cherry trees and an event for children, "Japanese Culture Day." Here is a full listing of the Library's related programming.

To Borrow From Google … and Rossini … and the Cosmos

What do leaping frogs and composer Gioachino Rossini have in common? Well, thanks to today's Google doodle the two are brought together rather comically – not only does today mark the cosmic anomaly of leap day but it's also the 220th birthday of Rossini … or his 53rd, depending upon which way you roll.

After some Googling of my own, it would appear the frogs – who have made previous leaping appearances in the search engine's doodle – are paying tribute to "The Barber of Seville," Rossini's famous 1816 comic opera and also one of the most-performed on stage.

The Library's own National Jukebox has pulled together more than 50 selections of Rossini's compositions, including several from the noted opera. In addition, the Library's collections include several pieces of sheet music, including this one for piano, titled "Barbier de Seville," op. 36.

Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress

Rossini was born on Feb. 29, 1792, in Pesaro, Italy. He has works listed as early as 1801. At 12, he delivered a set of six sonatas for strings, which scholars actually discovered the original scores in the Library of Congress following World War II. Rossini's other famous operas include "William Tell" (1829), "Semiramide" (1823) and "Cinderella" (1817). He died Nov. 13, 1868.

According to statistics, the probability of a birthday falling on leap day is 1 in 1461. To put another number on it, that means nearly 5 million people worldwide are "leapers." Now, whether they celebrate on Feb. 28 or March 1 on non-leap years is a matter of personal preference. Personally, I'd celebrate both days for double the gifts and fun! Of course, I'd likely only officially mark the event in accordance with the leap calendar … you know, to stay younger longer.

See It Now: J. Edgar, Man of Mystery

J. Edgar Hoover – former Library of Congress employee, longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a highly respected but feared individual – has been the subject of admiration and controversy alike. Some 40 years since his death, he has returned to the spotlight thanks to Clint Eastwood's biopic "J. Edgar," the DVD of which was released this month. (Although I haven't seen the DVD, one of the extra features is a "Making Of …" segment, in which Eastwood talks about Hoover working at the Library.)

In Eastwood's characterization, Hoover claims to have invented the Library's card catalog system. While not true, Hoover did become very adept at using the resource – the knowledge of which he would later use to build the FBI's own, very extensive files.

J. Edgar Hoover, Dec. 22, 1924 / National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress)

The Library had no direct input in the writing of the screenplay by Dustin Lance Black.  (Within the context of the film, the scene featuring the Library implies that Hoover might have been bragging to impress his date).

According to author Kenneth D. Ackerman, separating fact from perception of the legendary American is difficult. Hoover was a hero but also had a dark side. And, of course, the rumors circulating around his personal life remain.

Ackerman spoke at the Library on Jan. 18 regarding his book "Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties" (Carroll & Graf, 2007). A webcast of his talk is now available on our site. Ackerman did much of his research here at the Library, using the many collections of our Manuscript and Serial and Government Publication divisions.

Regardless of the mystery and controversy surrounding Hoover, he built the FBI into a modern and professional crime-fighting organization, brought scientific investigation to the bureau, established an FBI National Academy and made the G-man brand hugely popular.

P.S. I'm hoping to make "See It Now" a more regular feature, in an effort to bring to you the various programming we host here at the Library.

Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

One would be hard-pressed not to appreciate the splendor of the Library of Congress Main Reading Room. Granted, I may have an employee bias, but it truly is a magnificent space. A local blogger once referred to it as the "Sugar Ray Robinson" of interior spaces, with grandeur that "can't be beat."

Photo by Deanna McCray-James

Twice each year, the Library opens the reading room for a special public open house. The winter open house takes place next week on the federal Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day) holiday, Monday, Feb. 20, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

More than 4,200 visitors attended last year's open house. And Library staff expect large crowds again, as this event has become increasingly popular.

James Sweany, head of the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, talks about doing research at the Library/Photo by Deanna McCray-James

Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the Library's genealogical collections and services, view recipes from our collection of presidential and White House cookbooks, become acquainted with the "Ask a Librarian" online reference service and check out the "Chronicling America" historic American newspaper resource, featuring president-related topic pages such as this one on Teddy Roosevelt.

A highlight of the open house is the card catalog – particularly popular with the kids, many of whom have never seen one before.

A sign of our technological times?

Visitors peruse the Library's card catalog/Photo by Deanna McCray-James

Another special treat for will be a read-aloud with Miss International, Ciji Dodds. She'll be reading "A. Lincoln and Me," by Louise W. Borden.

So grab the kids and get thee to the Library next Monday. See you soon!

Your Well-Wisher, H. C. Andersen

The following is a guest post from Taru Spiegel, reference specialist in the Library's European Division.

How would you like to receive a phone call out of the blue, asking if you are interested in a gift of priceless original letters by your favorite author? When you work at the Library of Congress, fairy-tale offers like this can come true.

Donor Barbara McKnight holds a painting of her ancestor, Louis Bagger.

For a Hans Christian Andersen fan, the Library's collection of his first editions, manuscripts, letters, presentation copies and pictorial material is a treasure trove. The collection was recently expanded with a donation of four new Andersen letters from a descendant of Louis Bagger, a 19th-century journalist, lawyer and ardent admirer of the Danish author of the classic children's stories "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina" and "The Ugly Duckling."

Bagger, who immigrated to the United States from Denmark in the late 1860s, helped Andersen as a translator, editor and proofreader – assistance appreciated by the author and Horace Scudder, his U.S. promoter.  Hans Christian Andersen was quite popular in the U.S. and some of his stories – "The Great Sea Serpent," about the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, for example – first appeared in the U. S. and in the English language.

The Andersen letters to Bagger span 1863 to 1872 and discuss, among other things, Andersen's fear of crossing the Atlantic, which kept the author from his admiring U.S. public; allusions to the married singer Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt, for whom Andersen held romantic feelings; and young Danish authors Andersen thought were worthy of translation into English.

Hans Christian Andersen addressed this envelope to Louis Bagger, then the editor of a Washington, D.C., newspaper called the Daily Patriot. The envelope bears Andersen's signature in the lower left corner.

Bagger also at one time entertained his own ambitions as a poet – efforts that drew a diplomatic assessment from Andersen:

Your letter and the enclosed short poems tell me that you have a warm heart and much love for poetry, but how much talent you have or do not have, I cannot possibly tell," Andersen wrote Bagger. "To put one's thoughts in verse form in our time is as easy as writing an essay. If you feel a truly intense need to compose, do it, but only when it quite overcomes you. I cannot and dare not encourage you, but neither will I discourage you. Time will disclose whether or not you have talent. — Your well-wisher, H. C. Andersen.

The letters will be housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Reverberating Still

Dr. King, shortly before his trip to Norway to receive the Nobel Prize

Half a century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave motion to a powerful, peaceful movement – and his words remain deeply moving today.

Here, from the Library's photographic collections, is a photo of Dr. King shortly before he traveled with members of his family to Oslo, Norway, where in December of 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in the struggle for African-Americans' civil rights.

You can find the text of his stirring acceptance speech here.

On Monday, Americans will observe Martin Luther King Day. Consider his words: "Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts … right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant … I still believe that We Shall overcome!"

Consider his words–and be moved.

 

 

 

 

The Registry — and Beyond

The closing days of the year are always exciting here at the Library of Congress, because the Librarian of Congress names the 25 films that are this year's selections to the National Film Registry, which designates films that are to be preserved for posterity due to their cultural, aesthetic and historical value.

But keep in mind, it's part of a larger preservation story that takes place every day at the Library's Packard Campus in Culpeper, Va., a state-of-the-art facility where the nation's library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world's largest and most comprehensive collection (6 million items, and counting) of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings.

This year's picks, the culmination of a process advised by the National Film Preservation Board with extensive public input, include "Forrest Gump" (1994), "Bambi" (1942), "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), "Stand and Deliver" (1988), "The Lost Weekend" (1945) "Porgy and Bess" (1959) and "Norma Rae" (1979). There are many other less well-known films on this year's list, but all are fascinating in one way or another – for example the home movies of Fayard and Harold Nicholas, famed dancers in the 1930s and 1940s.  While documenting their stage life, they captured rare footage now unable to be found anywhere else – scenes from the interior of the Cotton Club, for example.

Also on this year's list is the 1921 full-length silent Charlie Chaplin classic, "The Kid," featuring a child star named Jackie Coogan later known to television audiences as Uncle Fester in TV's "The Addams Family."

There were 2,228 films nominated to the registry this year; if you want to nominate some, you are welcome to voice your opinions at the website of the National Film Preservation Board.

And heads up! This is important!

On Thursday, Dec. 29 at 10 p.m. on PBS stations' show "Independent Lens" (check local listings) an excellent documentary about the National Film Preservation Board and the registry will be aired.  Titled "These Amazing Shadows," the film by Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton tells how the NFPB is saving these wonderful artworks from extinction.

If you love movies, you won't want to miss "These Amazing Shadows."