A JUKEBOX for the ages

One of my tech blogger friends shared this information last week- I had trouble with it's functionality initially-but now find it very cool. If you are an audiophile in any way you will be excited by the National Jukebox.

The Library of Congress has created the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.

It is an archive of more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. These are recordings that were made using an acoustical recording process that captured sounds on wax cylinders. The recordings in the archive can be searched and listened to on your computer. You can search the archives by recording date, recording type, language, and target audience. The National Jukebox has also arranged playlists that you can listen to in a continuous stream.
This could be a great resource for teachers of history, music, and music history. You might have students choose recordings that they like, research the performers, and research the cultural and or political context in which a recording was made, or trace the evolution of a particular style of music.

Thanks to Richard Byrne for the heads up!