This is a wonderful list. The mention of the Office of International  Information (and Cultural Affairs) seems to situate them between 1946 and 1953, when the U.S. Information Agency was established:

https://eca.state.gov/about-bureau/history-and-mission-eca

The discs can smell very strongly, but I’ve not encountered health issues in using them.

May I share the list with a contact at the National Archives? They may be able to shed more light on where these came from and if they have those recordings in their holdings.

Thanks,
Maristella

From: Margarida Ullate i Estanyol <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]; Steve Greene <[log in to unmask]>; Feustle, Maristella <[log in to unmask]>; Steve Smolian <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask]
Cc: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [EXT] RE: [ARSCLIST] Department of State. Office of International Information. International Broadcasting Division sound recordings

Dear  Paul, Steve, Maristella and George

Thank you so much for your answers. I apologize for my silence these days, but I’ve been away from my computer.

Please find, attached, a partial list of 16-inch sound recordings in our collections.  Some of them are “acetate” discs [I know; we are missusing the term]. Most of the sound recordings are American, but some others came from Canada and Tanger (Pan American Radio).

As our sound technician experienced some health problems during the transfer of the “acetates”, we are trying to know if there is any other institution having the same content already digitized, before hiring someone else to do it.

As Steve suggested, these kind of collections might have been catalogued in an archival way, which is a bit more difficult to retrieve than a bibliographical one. We have MGM 16-inch sound recordings cataloged in an archival way too.

Best regards from Barcelona,

Margarida