Frederick C. Packard, Jr. sound recordings

Processed by: Mary Walker Graham

Supervisor/Researcher: Christina Davis

Consultants: Adrien Hilton, Laura Larkin, Carie McGinnis, Josephine Packard, Susan Pyzynski, Elizabeth Walters, and Melanie Wisner.

The physical and intellectual arrangement schemes for this collection were imposed during processing to address conservation needs and to facilitate a better understanding of the complex processes involved in disc recording and manufacture. Prior to the current arrangement, discs were housed in three distinct locations within the Woodberry Poetry Room. With a few exceptions, at the time of inventory, the discs were found to be in no discernible order. In processing, the archivist rehoused the materials in new archival sleeves and boxes, segregating the discs first by material designation, then by size. All handwritten annotations found on the original sleeves were transcribed at the time of rehousing. Original sleeves bearing no annotations were discarded, while those with significant markings were retained and digitized.

Item-level descriptive notes were created according to the conventions below:

Main Title:

To assist researchers in readily distinguishing between unproduced and commercially-produced recordings, the following titling conventions were observed:

For instantaneous discs and production parts, main title entries for each item were devised by the archivist and enclosed in brackets. These devised titles consist of the following segments:

1. the recording artist's name 2. the term "sound recording" 3. in some cases, a topical description

For commercially-produced vinyl and shellac discs, titles were taken directly from the disc labels.

Example 1: A title devised for a lacquer disc containing a recording of T. S. Eliot [T. S. Eliot sound recording]

Example 2: A title taken from the disc label of a commercially-produced disc T. S. Eliot: Reading His Own Poems

In instances when only a partial name is present on the item, or the name was inferred, a question mark was used to indicate uncertainty. Publisher: Publisher names were provided only for mass-produced (vinyl or shellac) discs, and were taken directly from the disc labels. The following variations on the Vocarium label appear on discs in this collection: The Harvard Vocarium Records Harvard Vocarium: Spoken Literature A Vocarium Disc Poetry for Enjoyment: A Vocarium Disc Vocarium Records: Spoken Literature

Dates:

Dates are taken directly from the item itself. In some cases, the date on a given item may refer to a publication or production date (not the date of the original recording). In certain rare cases, when a date can be reasonably inferred but is not listed on the item, the date information has been provided in a curator's note.

Detailed Contents:

Due to the fragility of the formats and the technological challenges presented by legacy audio, the contents of these recordings could not be verified through playback at the time of cataloging. Therefore, contents listings have been derived from annotations either on the items' original sleeves or disc labels. In instances where the titling information was fragmentary or partial (often the case for instantaneous discs and production parts), the archivist consulted an authoritative resource, such as a published book, for a complete title. For commercially-produced discs, titles were derived directly from the disc labels.

The terms "Side A" and "Side B" have been used throughout to designate the recto and verso of each disc.

Sleeve and Disc Label Annotations:

Handwritten annotations on sleeves and disc labels appear frequently throughout the collection, and often contain important identifying information about the recordings. In order to make these annotations searchable, transcriptions of the primary text have been provided. To view the complete annotations, researchers should refer to the digital surrogates or to the discs themselves.

The annotations were transcribed using a vertical bar “|” to indicate line-breaks or spaces. Terminology:

The following terms or numbers appear frequently on disc labels and original sleeve annotations throughout the collection. Provisional definitions are provided below: Hold Master: a lacquer disc created and retained in case the Master was damaged in transit or during production.

H.F.S. No.: a matrix number assigned to a recording by the Harvard Film Service.

Publication No.: a number assigned by the respective creator or agency (such as, the Harvard Vocarium or the British Broadcasting Corporation).