Mixed Media

The advent of mechanisms to reliably record sound offered new possibilities for those working in areas ranging from zoology to sociology. While the size, bulk, and cost of the early equipment ruled out using it in field work, recording equipment eventually became more portable, and thus more versatile in its applications. From the use of a device like a Dictaphone to record one’s thoughts (which could then be replayed and transcribed, perhaps using shorthand) to more sophisticated equipment such as those used by Cornell ornithologists, the mid-20thcentury saw rapid development of recording devices and expansion of their use by professionals.

The images shown here demonstrate the size of equipment used by Cornell faculty such as Paul Kellogg and Arthur Allen to capture birdsong in a variety of terrain and conditions in the 1930s and 1940s. In some cases, the subjects themselves, like this eagle, did not take kindly to the presence of the instruments in their habitats. Norma Stillwell documented the process of recording bird species across the country in her published memoir, Bird Songs, in which she not only writes about traveling across the United States as part of the process, but also describes and includes photographs of the types of equipment she and her husband used in making the recordings.