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"Adopt a Cylinder" Program

It costs the library $60 to catalog, digitize, rehouse, and preserve a single cylinder. We currently have a backlog of ovr 900 cylinders that are not yet digitized. Thanks to a grant from the GRAMMY Foundation® we have added over 1000 cylinders to the online collection in 2010, but there are still hundreds more to be preserved and digitized.

If you would like to "adopt" a cylinder, we will prioritize the digitization of a cylinder and put it online for you and others to listen to. A $60 tax deductible donation* to the cylinder project will ensure the preservation of the cylinder of your choice. Email project director at seubert@library.ucsb.edu to adopt a cylinder or send a check payable to "UC Regents" to:

David Seubert
Davidson Library
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010

Currently, we only accept payment via check or wire transfer (no Paypal or credit cards at the current time). Please provide your name and city if you wish to be acknowledged as the adoptee of the cylinder.

The library thanks the following donors for adopting cylinders:

*Only available for US taxpayers.


An initiative of the UC Santa Barbara Library • (805) 893-5444 • Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010. [Envelope] Direct questions or comments about the project or this page to the project staff or visit the help pages.

Featured Cylinder

Air for G string - Joel Belov. (Edison Blue Amberol: 4010), Edison Record: 6289), [1920].


Cylinder Radio

Listen to a podcast or live stream of German comedy cylinders from 1904-1909 on Cylinder Radio

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Did You Know?
Edison originally envisioned sound recording as a tool for office dictation, not entertainment.

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