IDNO

N.34988.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.2058.ACH1: “Phonograph, Hula.” [Typed text]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate image LS.89110.TC1: “Voice-testing 1.30 a,b. Singing to phonograph.” [manuscript in ink]

A group of children from Hula singing into a Edison phonograph so that probably Sidney Ray? can record the songs.
The children are sitting on the ground in a semicircle around the phonograph, with the lid of the phonograph in the foreground, and spectators sitting and standing in the background. [JD 12/04/2019, identification of Sidney Ray by True Echoes researchers and updated 29/10/2025. See https://www.true-echoes.

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Central Division; Southeast Coast; Vula'a; Hula [British New Guinea; Bulaa]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

?Sidney Ray

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

5 - 14 June 1898

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Glass negative

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The negative was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C102/35/ which was in a wooden box now marked C102/. The envelope (C102/35/) is re-housed in Neg. Env. Box 1. which is stored in Storage Box A in the Photo Archive room.

Related Collections: The Expedition's wax cylinder recordings are now cared for by the British Library, reference C80/816, https://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Ethnographic-wax-cylinders/025M-C0080X0816XX-0100V0. [JD 12/06/2018]

Related Image: This photograph is a close-up of the scene shown in N.34987.ACH2, with Charles Seligmann recording Hula songs. [A. Herle July 2019]

Publication: Image published on front cover of a Papua New Guinean newspaper (WANTOK), June 2019, and captioned: "Hula Jun 1898.
Dispela poto bilong Jun 1898 i soim ol pikinini meri long Hula i singsing na phonograph i katim singsing bilong ol long ol weks silinda. Kiostu nau bai ol tumbuna bilong ol i ken harim nek bilong ol. Lukim stori long pes 11. Poto Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology." [JD 15/08/2019]

Publication: Image published in 'Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from his Expeditions to the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888–89, 1898–99', Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp (Sydney University Press), Fig 0.33, and captioned: "A group of children singing into the Edison Home Phonograph, recorded by Seligmann. Hula, BNG, 1898. MAA N.34988." [JD 06/03/2020]

Publication: Related image N.34987.ACH2 published in 'True Echoes: Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea, 1898', and captioned: "Phonograph in use in Hula, British New Guinea, 1898
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, N.34987.ACH2."
Related text notes, "There is one published reference to Seligmann using the phonograph in 1898, a photograph in Herle and Rouse (1998:228) that depicts one of the anthropologists using the phonograph in Hula, presumably on 14 June (See also N.34987.ACH2 (Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), also pictured below.). However, it is not clear why this was labelled as a photograph of Seligmann; indeed, it is likely that it in fact depicts Ray. It may have been labelled “Seligmann” because the 1898 recordings from British New Guinea were until 2020 in a collection titled Seligman New Guinea (C62). Comparison of that photo with other portraits of the expedition members, particularly looking at the hat, facial hair and height, suggests it is Ray.
The photograph above clearly shows that the machine in use is the Edison Home Phonograph. It is possible that the photograph is posed or shows a practice run, as it appears that there is no wax cylinder mounted on the phonograph. There is only one photograph of phonographic recording in the Torres Strait, where the machine is being operated by Charles Myers, and it is not clear what machine was being used (See P.45013.ACH2 (Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)." [Published as https://www.true-echoes.com/1898-torres-strait-and-new-guinea/, JD 29/10/2025]