[78-L] 78 album covers

[Cary Ginell]

Not being a serious collector of pre-1920 materials, I don't personally have a lot that predates Steinweiss. I do, however, have a Decca 78 album, No. 66, consisting of three discs of fiddle tunes by Clayton McMichen. This was probably issued around 1936-37. The cover features a photograph of McMichen, and the set comes complete with a detailed booklet. I can scan this as evidence, but it is not what I would consider to be "album art," merely a descriptive summary of what's in the album, along with a photo. If someone can send me scans of two or three items that definitively predate Steinweiss and that can be considered "album art," I will forward it to Liesl with my official response.

Cary Ginell

> From: tkneebone1 at abe.midco.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:31:20 -0600
> Subject: [78-L] 78 album covers
> 
> I am not sure what date is being used when writing about about the creator 
> of the first illustrated album covers.  It is possible that history does not 
> record the name of the first person(s) who designed early albums.  In my 
> collection there are some of those albums that I am sure are quite old. 
> Here are some I know about, not all are still in my collection:
> 
> Columbia.  Mozart: Divertimento K 287, strings & horns. Goberman ensemble 
> with Szigeti as violin     soloist.  Blue with colored circles.  Many of 
> their albums used this pattern.
> Victor.  Musorgskii: Pictures at an exhibition.  Koussevitzky & Boston sym 
> orch.  Brown or rust         colored, with some kind of embossing.  Many of 
> their albums used this pattern.
> Decca.  Bing Crosby album.  Photo of Crosby on the cover.  A booklet 
> enclosed.
> Musicraft.  Sylvia Marlowe playing Scarlatti sonatas.  I think there was a 
> photo of a harpsichord on it.
> 
> Except for the Crosby album, I suppose these albums could not be called 
> "illustrated" -- but they surely were housed in more than brown sleeves! 
> Some of these should have carried the name of the designer.
> 
> I discovered, to my sadness, that water and those old albums do not mix.  I 
> had to discard many of them after a flood in my basement "melted" them.  The 
> discs survived well, but the albums did not.
> 
> Ted Kneebone. 1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401. Phone: 605-226-3344.
> 
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