For Immediate Release Media Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7106 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org General Information about The Field Museum: (312) 922-9410 Museum rescues "endangered" recordings Field Museum preserves audio descriptions of prized Pacific collection recorded on sonobands, an “endangered species” of information technology CHICAGO—In 1958, Field Museum curator of the Pacific, Roland Force, sat down with Captain A.W.F. Fuller to record more than 100 hours of comprehensive information about the 6,622 artifacts in Fuller’s Pacific collection that had been acquired over the previous half century. They used a Walkie RecordAll, then a state-of-the-art recording device, and write-able media tapes called sonobands. Today, the Museum is having these recordings converted to a digital format, which is proving to be quite a challenge. Much as reel-to-reel tape recorders and eight-track cassettes have been relegated to the technological dustbin, the Walkie RecordAll and the sonoband medium on which the device etched sounds fell out of use in the 1970s. Today this technology is as imperiled as an endangered species, such as the panda or snow leopard. In fact, the full-service archival lab that the Museum contracted to preserve the recordings did not possess a machine of this type. In the 1950s and 60s, the boxy, battery-powered machines were commonly used in the legal profession and by the Chicago Police Department to make legal recordings in criminal cases. They were also advertised as a way to secretly record conversations. Fortunately, The Field Museum had kept the two Walkie RecordAll machines used for the Fuller-Force recording sessions. It has loaned these functioning devices to the contractor, the Cutting Corporation in Bethesda, Md., for this project. Otherwise, the voices describing the masks and skulls, weapons and tools, idols and boomerangs, might have been lost. Fortunately, The Field Museum had kept the two Walkie RecordAll machines used for the Fuller-Force recording sessions. It has loaned these semi-functioning devices to the contractor, The Cutting Corporation, an audio production facility with a renowned sound preservation laboratory in Bethesda, Md., for this project. After studying and restoring the Museum’s Walkie RecordAll machines, The Cutting Corporation had to re-engineer its own Walkie RecordAll machine. Continue>>