Subseries 1a: Recording cards, 1920-1928

The Gennett Records Division of Starr Piano Company records and sound discs contains materials that span the period of 1920 to 1939 with additional undated materials; the bulk of the material dates from 1921 to 1933. The collection consists of business records (recording cards, disposition records, and ledgers) and sound discs with their original folders. The recording cards document the various recording sessions that occurred at Gennett's studios in Richmond, Indiana, and New York City. These sessions cover a wide variety of styles, including classical, jazz, blues, ethnic, country, gospel, novelty, sound effects, hokum, popular music, and oratory. Some notable performers who appear on the recording cards are King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and His Washingtonians, Fats Waller, Ladd's Black Aces, and Leon Ropollo. Private (also known as "vanity") recording sessions are also documented, including several by the Ku Klux Klan. Several recording cards contain technical remarks by the recording engineer. The ledgers hold financial and administrative information related to recording sessions, including recording dates, location, copyright information, and royalties as well as documentation of when some master recordings were destroyed. The majority of the these records were kept in bound ledgers, some of which have since been unbound, though there are several loose sheets. A few advertisements related to Gennett recordings, such as seasonal releases and the sound effects series, are contained alongside the loose ledger sheets and disposition records. The sixteen sound discs are the metal masters (also known as "stampers") and mothers used to create 78-rpm shellac phonograph records.