The Oldest Recorded Voices in History

🎙️The first recorded human voice was made by Thomas Edison in 1877 with his invention, the phonograph.

🗞️Leon Scott, a Frenchman, had developed a device called the phonautograph in the 1850s, which could inscribe airborne sounds onto paper.

📜The earliest known playable recording of a human voice is from 1860 and features Leon Scott singing a popular French folk song.

🔮A recording from 1878 captures the voices of a man reciting nursery rhymes and bursts of laughter.

👴Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a renowned military strategist, recorded his voice in 1889, making him the earliest born person whose voice has survived.

Who invented the phonograph?

—The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.

What was the first recorded human voice?

—The first recorded human voice was Thomas Edison saying "Mary had a little lamb" in 1877.

Who developed the phonautograph?

—The phonautograph was developed by Leon Scott, a Frenchman, in the 1850s.

What is the earliest known playable recording of a human voice?

—The earliest known playable recording of a human voice is from 1860 and features Leon Scott singing a popular French folk song.

Who is the earliest born person whose voice has survived?

—Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a renowned military strategist, recorded his voice in 1889, making him the earliest born person whose voice has survived.

00:01In the summer of 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, which recorded the first human voice.

03:00Leon Scott developed the phonautograph in the 1850s, which inscribed airborne sounds onto paper.

06:00The earliest playable recording of a human voice is from 1860, featuring Leon Scott singing a French folk song.

09:00A recording from 1878 captures a man reciting nursery rhymes and bursts of laughter.

11:00Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a renowned military strategist, recorded his voice in 1889, making him the earliest born person with a surviving voice.