#record research

Time for more new haul selections, this time from a recent auction from my pals Dawn and Mary over at Too Hip Chicks! Plus, a bonus addition to my library – thanks, stimulus money!

I've posted some more issues of Record Research magazine to archive.org. Issue numbers are 2-3 (!), 32-37, 39-42, and 51/52. Big thanks to UK-based blues collector, publisher and writer Alan Balfour for trusting me with his issues (and shipping them overseas!). As you can see on my index, this almost completes all of the issues published in the 1960s.

Articles among these recently posted include

"An Introduction to the Department Store Labels" (issue 2), Edison Dating Guide (2), "American Minstrel Theatre on Phonograph Records 1894-1929 (serial), Victoria Spivey biography (33), Miff Mole biography (34), John Lee Hooker's First Recording Session (34), Anthony Franchini Biography (35), Wilbur Sweatman obit (36), Superior Records Catalog (serial), Blind Willie McTell's Last Session (37), Lucille Hegamin & Brother John Sellers (39), Memphis Slim Discography (40-41), George Gershwin piano roll-ography (42), and the famous double-issue catalog of dance & race records on the Perfect label (as well as a pretty interesting background on the discipline of discography) (51/52), oh, also, an actually kind of funny "Rim Chips" comic (see if you can find it).

I'm honored and excited to present archives of two of my favorite collectors magazines, now on my "Dinosaur Discs" web site.

78 Quarterly was published mostly 1988-2005 (20 years after the first 2 issues in 1967 and 68) by Pete Whelan, founder of the reissue label Origin Jazz Library. It was the eminent collectors' magazine in this period, and only covers the most obscure and valuable country blues and traditional jazz discs and labels.

It's also a really interesting magazine, to me, in how it reflects the "old boys club" culture of 78 collecting, and the compulsive mind of the serious record collector. That aside, it's full of excellent research and writing, and discographies of influential recording series and artists.

All 12 issues (the first two packaged together in their 1992 reissue) are included here as PDF downloads from my hosting service. Archive.org didn't like them for some reason.

Record Research magazine was started in 1955 by Leonard "Len" Kunstadt and a small group of collectors out of Brooklyn, NY. The magazine was published more frequently than 78 Quarterly, and covered a wider scope of 78rpm and cylinder recordings, but also published influential research and discographies. It may have been designed to carry the torch of the influential Record Changer magazine, but I can't find any reliable verification of this.

I have only been able to track down about half of the published issues of this magazine, but I'd eventually like to complete the archive. If you can contribute scans, or lend me your copies to scan, I'd be very grateful.

I understand a table of issue numbers isn't the best way to browse a magazine archive. This is mostly to help me keep track of which issues I've scanned. You can find a listing of issues with brief descriptions using the archive.org tag "Record Research".