News from the Sutherland Archives

By Catherine McIntyre, Archivist

We have added two brand new collections to our digital collections and oral histories: the Edison Cylinder Project and the Vietnam Oral History Collection.

The Edison Cylinder Project is the brainchild of Professor Mike Wisland of the Digital Media Technology Department. He and several of his students have built a machine that electronically transcribes the sound from the original Edison cylinders, the precursors to records. While many external recordings have been made of the music from Edison cylinders, it is rare to actually digitize the sound directly from the cylinder, thus eliminating much of the crackle and hiss that one might pick up with an external recording. We currently have four jaunty tunes from 1916-1919 in this collection, including the number one hit of its time, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” and saucy little numbers such as “Naughty! Naughty! Naughty!” This collection will continue to grow as we digitize more of Professor Wisland’s Edison cylinders.

Dr. William Cobb interviews Ray Hill

The second of our new digital collections is the Vietnam Era Oral History Collection. UVU history professor Dr. William Cobb has been contacting and interviewing area Vietnam era veterans since 2010. We currently have several transcripts available online, but we will soon be adding the audio of the interviews, as well as maps, photographs, and digitized images of other items that are important to the interviewees such as their helmets, jackets, and other objects. This collection will also continue to grow in size, depth, and importance as a research resource.

We will soon receive a donation of several hundred historical photographs, slides, and negatives from Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. UVRMC will soon be celebrating their 75th anniversary. We plan to digitize some of the collection in time for their celebration. The collection includes images of older area hospital buildings, personnel, promotional photos, and more that will be useful for research on hospitals, medicine, and the medical profession in Provo. We’re looking forward to making this collection available.

Visit the George Sutherland Archives online.