Phonograph cylinders online

You can access some of the first commercially recorded audio material at the website of the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project of UCSB. They have converted 6,000 cakewalks, rags, novelty tunes, racist songs, vaudeville gags, and marches from wax cylinder to digital format. Check out this important and oft-overlooked part of our cultural heritege. One of my favorite tracks is "I'm a Yiddish Cowboy"(1908) by Edward Meeker.