Information

The Berliner Archives presents a portal for users to learn about the rich and underappreciated history of the inventor Emile Berliner, the Montreal Berliner Gram-o-phone Company, and histories of the field of sound recording and the global audio industry. Montréal, played a key role in the evolution of sound recording and sound-recording technology that the archive aims to preserve.

Over 2000 documents and records that were previoulsy hidden away and too fragile to exhibit are now available through the online archive. The archive aims to serve a wide audience of users from the general public, to researchers, cultural workers, and institutions far and wide.

Navigating the archives.

The archive is divided into two sections: discs and documents. In the disc section you will find album covers and digitised recordings of early records (1890-1920), rare records, local records, and novelty records that lacked digitization elsewhere in Canada. The sound recordings are uploaded both as original and restored versions.

In the document section you will find advertisements, blueprints, books, brochures, data sheets, letters and more from the 1910s to the 1970s covering all aspects of radio, television and music technology. Also included are personal documents from the Berliner family collection.

Collections: The documents section is split into six collections: (1) Advertising and promotional material; (2) Communications and inquiries; (3) Photographs; (4) Publications; (5) Retailer and commercial documentation; (6) Technical information and manuals.

Filter option: Within these collections, you can filter using the provided document type list. For a general search across discs and documents, use the search bar by entering keywords like “Marconi” or “45 RPM”.