Voices of History 2

Following the success of last year's "Voices of History", the British Library is publishing a second volume of historic recordings of celebrated people, who were active from the early days of sound recording to the middle of the twentieth century. This second volume covers four major areas of interest - the arts, the sciences, sport and exploration. Rare or notable items include: a unique recording of the voice of Victorian physicist Lord Kelvin, which is being published for the first time; the authors Leo Tolstoy (speaking in English) and Arthur Conan Doyle; Malcolm Campbell on setting a new land speed record and Charles Lindbergh on flying across the Atlantic; and a series of eminent scientists talking about their work, including Thomas Alva Edison, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Alexander Fleming, and Francis Crick. Among the thirty-eight recordings selected are some of the earliest spoken recordings ever made, such as those by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley, the composer Arthur Sullivan and the American showman P.T. Barnum. Two CDs with this booklet explain the background and history of each item, together with translations where necessary.