The UCSB Library invites you to discover and listen to its online archive of cylinder recordings; donate to help the collection grow; and learn about how these sounds and songs create an audio history of American culture.

Cylinder of the day

“She's my Daisy” performed by Harry Lauder.

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News

April 20, 2017: Arreola Family Collection of Mexican and Cuban Cylinders in the Lynn Andersen Collection now online.

June 12, 2016: Newly digitized cylinders will be posted on Facebook daily beginning Monday June 13.

May 23, 2016: Debus family donates collection of rare recordings.

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Playlists

Listen to thematic playlists of recordings from the archive

Cylinder History

Explore the history of the cylinder recording format

Did You Know?

Cylinders are acoustic recordings—performers sang or played into a recording horn, not a microphone. Microphones were not in widespread use until 1924 with the advent of electrical recording.

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