Victor Talking Machine Company - The Victor Archives

The Victor Archives

Victor kept meticulous written records of all of its recordings. The files cover the period 1903 to 1958 (so this discussion is pertinent to RCA Victor as well as The Victor Talking Machine). These written records are among the most extensive and important sources of available primary discographic information in the world. There were three main categories of files: A daily log of recordings for each day; a file maintained for each important Victor artist; and a 4"x6" index card file kept in catalog number order. As of 2010, the Victor archives were owned by Sony and kept in New York City.

There are about 15,000 daily log pages, each titled "Recording Book," that are numbered chronologically. Each recording was assigned a "matrix number" to identify the recording. When issued, the recording had a "catalog number," almost always different from the matrix number, on the record label. For most recordings the information given in the daily log included the following:

• recording date
• matrix number
• title
• artist
• instrumentation (e.g., "2 violins-piano," with only the important artists or important Victor house musicians named, e.g., "violin-L. Raderman-piano-N. Shilkret")
• author(s) (lyricist(s) and composer(s))
• publisher
• take number (e.g., B 27413-3 for the third attempt at recording matrix B 27413)
• disposition ("D" for destroy, "H" for hold, "M" for master), which was written in by hand after the entry was made
• a date which may have been the date disposition was made

For many recordings the following additional information was written:

• catalog number, which was written by hand after the entry was made
• city in which the recording was made

Some pages have letter suffixes; e.g., page 5417A follows page 5417. Frequently, but not always, the pages with letter suffixes were used for recordings made other than in the New York area; e.g., page 5417A lists recordings made in Chicago. Pages with letter suffixes are sometimes slightly out of chronological order.

As of 2010, the pages available at the Sony's Victor Archives go only up to April 22, 1935. Victor's original pages after this date were apparently discarded at some point. However, Victor had ties with EMI in England, and at Hayes, England EMI has more recent pages. These pages were sent at the time they were first written, and they do not have the annotations made afterwards.

Most, but not all, daily log information for recordings made for synchronization with motion pictures were kept separately, and the separate synchronization recording information is missing from the Sony Victor archives.

The files by artist were also maintained chronologically and had information similar to that in the daily log sheets, and also some technical information such as information about the horns used for acoustical recordings. E.g., there is an approximately 350-page file labeled "International Novelty Orchestra--Export." The word "Export" indicated that only the recordings made for export to Central and South America were included in the file.

The 4"x6" index cards are on blue stock, and, thus, are usually referred to as "the blue cards" or some variant of this. The blue card file consists of approximately a quarter of a million cards arranged in catalog number order. The blue cards contain much of the same information as the daily log and also additional information, such as the date a master was tested. In some cases, record sales are indicated on the back side of the card.

Victor also issued catalogs, usually annually, with supplements issued during the year, that were carefully prepared and also provide useful information.

The Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) is a continuation of a project of Ted Fagan and William Moran to make a complete discography of all Victor recordings. The Victor archive files are a major source of information for this project.