1890 Passamaquoddy Phonograph Recordings

These are the recordings made during Jesse Walter Fewkes' research trip to Maine in March of 1890. The trip was undertaken so he could test the Edison Phonograph in field conditions, and bring back sample recordings to various groups and universities in Boston before his trip to the Southwest later that year. These recordings were the first ethnographic phongraph recordings ever made, and were pivotal to further fieldwork with the Edison phonograph. After Fewkes' work with the Passamaquoddy, he went on to publish many journal articles and transcriptions of Passamaquoddy stories, which can also be found in this collection.