Collecting Methodologies with the Phonograph

Drawing on my own experience as a user and collector of 78 rpm records and wind-up phonographs, this chapter begins by developing a theoretical framework for engaging with the historical materialities of recorded sound. I highlight the interests of collapsing the scholar and collector into a single figure: a contemporary user of historical machines capable of reenacting, and reinventing, scenarios of reception and use. I then demonstrate one such scenario by building a program of “canned” vaudeville out of records from my collection. This provides an opportunity for investigating the links between vaudeville performances across media, including the short films of the early sound era.