Recording of the week: Vintage voice notes from a remote island

Postcard of Pitcairn Island post office, dating to the 1940s. Public domain. I’ve chosen this recording of the week to celebrate World Post day, which marks the anniversary of the creation of the Universal Postal Union. The Union was established to create and maintain a postal system for the free…

Listening Desk by Emily Peasgood at the British Library

What can you see and hear on the upper ground floor of the Library? If you find yourself by the gallery outside the King’s Library, you will discover our Listening Desk, a cross between a gramophone horn, a desk, and a touch screen. This sound sculpture, and others around the…

Recording of the week: Harold Wilson’s 1963 pledge to harness the white heat of a scientific revolution

Today’s selection comes from Emmeline Ledgerwood, Discovering Science website co-ordinator. Sixty years ago, on 1 Oct 1963, the then Labour party leader, Harold Wilson, delivered his famous ‘white heat’ speech at the Labour party conference in Scarborough. In this speech he outlined the party’s plans to harness a ‘scientific revolution’…

Ripples of history: Sıbızğı recordings from northern Xinjiang

The Sıbızğı Recordings from Northern Xinjiang Coll…

Recording of the week: Recalling the 1981 Hunger Strike at Maze Prison

Photo of the inside of Maze Prison, licensed under CC BY 2.0. The clips for this Recording of the Week come from Pat Sheehan’s 2019 interview in the Voices of Our National Health Service collection. The 3rd October 2023 marks thirty-two years since the end of the 1981 hunger strikes…