Acquired in 1995, the Todd Collection includes over 200,000 sound recordings, including classical, popular jazz and ethnic disc recordings as well as nearly 6,000 cylinders, primarily commercial Edison and Columbia cylinders.
A card index to about one-third of the collection is in the Special Research Collections department. The collection also contains 12 vintage cylinder and disc players, as well as an extensive library of record company catalogs which have been indexed as part of the Sound Recording Catalog Collections. The library has an ongoing program to catalog the recordings.
- Cylinders
- There are approximately 6,000 cylinder recordings in the Todd Collection. The UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive makes these and other cylinders accessible online.
- Classical Recordings
- Approximately 15,000 12" singles and albums are currently accessible. Most of the album sets and a significant number of the singles have been cataloged and copies can be made for in-house listening.
- Popular Music
- Many of the 30,000+ pop albums and singles are cataloged.
- Jazz
- The jazz recordings are all cataloged.
- Miscellaneous
- The collection also contains Edison recordings, LPs, 45s, and 16" radio transcriptions.
Cataloged sound recordings can be found in UC Library Search. Digital copies can be requested through a Special Research Collections Account.
For more information on the collection or assistance in using the materials, please contact Special Research Collections staff at special@library.ucsb.edu.
