Mrs Boulton and the woodland warbler

Have you ever noticed how some animals are named after people? Hume’s Partridge. Lady Amherst’s Pheasant. Waller’s Starling. I come across this quite a lot when cataloguing new collections and have often wondered who these people were. You’d be forgiven for thinking that these species were named after the naturalists…

Classical Podcast No. 2 – Rob Cowan shares his passion for the artistry of violinist Bronislaw Huberman

Bronislaw Huberman (courtesy of Biddulph Records) By Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music Welcome to another in the occasional series of podcasts showcasing treasures from the classical collection of the British Library Sound Archive. A veteran broadcaster, Rob Cowan currently presents Cowan’s Classics on Classic FM. From an early age…

Recording of the week: have you eaten yet?

This week’s selection comes from Rowan Campbell, f…

Recording of the week: exploding seed pods

This week’s selection comes from Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds. The soaring temperatures of summer can have explosive results, especially if you happen to be standing near a gorse bush. This thorny, evergreen shrub produces an unmistakable sea of bright, yellow flowers from January to June. As…

Recording of the week: Nar Sur – a little known music genre from east Baluchistan

This week’s selection comes from AHRC Collaborative PhD candidate, Christian Poske. An unknown recordist captured this Baluchi folk song with a cylinder phonograph in Dera Bugti in Baluchistan in the winter of 1911. He noted down some information, including place and time of recording, topic of the song and instruments,…