Martin Moir Donation

[Jonathan Summers]

The British Library is fortunate to be the recipient of a collection of more than 500 very rare recordings built up over many years by the well known record collector and dealer, Martin Moir and donated by him and Kay Helena Scholastica Parkes.

The collection includes five extremely rare early blue label Zonophones whilst on vinyl there are such unusual labels as the Westminster Laboratory Series, Concert Hall, Chamber Music Society, Plymouth, Westminster, Ades, Sine Qua Non, Amadeo and Remington. Also included is a curious format of LP on the Trimicron label, promoted as a ‘triple play disc’ with one hour per side containing Beethoven’s Third and Sixth Symphonies plus an overture.

Other curiosities include an Adolf Hitler speech from 1933 on two ten inch German shellac discs, The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce on LP and ‘The Investigator’, a radio play lampooning the actions of the US House Committee on Un-American Activities written by Reuben Ship and first broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

There is a cardboard picture postcard disc from CBS Auravision of excerpts from Richard M. Nixon’s nomination acceptance speech of August 8, 1968 and three LPs of Trujillo Merengues (Dominican political songs). A collection of 31 five-inch Berliner and early Gramophone Company discs includes a very scarce recording of bird imitator Charles Mildare recorded on the 29th May 1900.

For a more detailed overview of the collection, please visit the British Library Music Blog. Martin Moir Donation