There’s something deeply satisfying about hearing a voice from decades and even centuries past. A new video by Kings and Things featuring authentic voice recordings from the Victorian era accomplishes just that, offering insight into how people from the 19th-century spoke and engaged with the world around them.
The video opens with a speech by Colonel George Gouraud for dinner guests on October 5th, 1888, in London. Though soft, grainy, and at times ghostly, his voice is nevertheless captured with surprising clarity, and even registers how he occasionally coughs and clears his throat. This extraordinary feat was accomplished by using Thomas Edison’s phonograph, originally invented about a decade earlier and later perfected throughout the 1880s as a wax cylinder phonograph.
Gouraud, the son of French engineer François Gouraud, strived to introduce Edison’s phonograph to Britain. He did so primarily through his decadent soirées, during which his distinguished guests witnessed phonograph demonstrations that showcased the machine’s thrilling novelty. Sir Arthur Sullivan, one of his guests, once claimed that he was “astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening’s experiments.”
While promoting the phonograph, Gouraud recorded several Victorian luminaries, including the Shakespearian actor Henry Irving, the poet Robert Browning, and Cardinal Manning, the Archbishop of Westminster. His goal was not only to highlight the phonograph’s technological capabilities but to immortalize the voices of significant historical figures.
Gouraud, however, wasn’t the only “recordist” active during the Victorian era. Others managed to capture the voices of the renowned social reformer Florence Nightingale, politician William Gale, and even Queen Victoria herself. Though certainly an impressive feat, the Queen’s recording is so damaged from overplaying that it’s proven difficult to definitively attribute it to her.
Taken in its entirety, the Kings and Things video is an enriching glimpse into the voices from over 100 years ago, while also providing a detailed historical account of the phonograph’s development. It also rewards our innate impulse to forge human connections that stretch across time and place.
To hear the Victorians speak for yourself, visit the Kings and Things channel on YouTube.
A recent YouTube video explores authentic voice recordings made during the Victorian era, which were primarily accomplished by using Thomas Edison's wax cylinder phonograph.
Thomas Edison and his early phonograph, ca. 1877 (Photo: Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons).
The voices of Victorian luminaries such as Florence Nightingale, Robert Browning, and even Queen Victoria were all recorded during the late-19th century.
Queen Victoria by Bassano, 1882. Glass copy negative, half-plate (Photo: Scanned from “The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England” by David Williamson, p. 153, via Wikimedia Commons).
Photograph of Florence Nightingale by Henry Hering, ca. 1860 (Photo: National Portrait Gallery, London, via Wikimedia Commons).
Woodburytype portrait of poet Robert Browning by Herbert Rose Barraud, ca. 1888 (Photo: Bonhams, via Wikimedia Commons).
Sources: History of the Cylinder Phonograph; The 1888 London cylinder recordings of Col. George Gouraud; In Search of Queen Victoria’s Voice; What Victorian People Sounded Like: Hear Recordings of Florence Nightingale & Queen Victoria Herself
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