Ok this is really damn cool!

[gwynraven]

Here you can hear a cylinder wax recording of Alfred, Lord Tennyson reading "The Charge of the Light Brigade". The recording was made on May 15, 1890. It's a crappy recording, of course, many words and even full lines are obscured and can't be heard. But it's still fascinating to listen to and know that that is *Tennyson's* own voice.

Comments

[harkalark]

Ah yes, those problematic little wax cylinders. They were one of the first sound recording formats. I dealt with a collection of them during my final semester of grad school.

[handworn]

Old cylinder recordings of many famous people are available online, like here. Supposedly the Library of Congress has one of Mark Twain, though I don't know if it's one of those online.