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Smithsonian Exhibits Documents, Early Recordings From Bell

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Museum of American History is hosting a series of programs this year about American innovation, and the first exhibit is focused on early sound recording.

Beginning this week, recordings and documents that inventor Alexander Graham Bell delivered to the Smithsonian are going on display for the first time. The museum holds some of the earliest audio recordings made in the 1880s. The exhibit includes early audio discs and listening stations.

Bell made the experimental recordings at his Volta Laboratory in Washington. Scientists played back Bell's early recordings for the first time in 2011 using new technology that can read the grooves in the aging wax disc. Experts identified Bell's voice on one recording in 2013.

The exhibit, "Hear My Voice," will be open through October.
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Online: http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/hear-my-voice

(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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