Thank you for these additional details, Patrick. Someone had a long memory (back then) to refer to this event from 42 years before the recording for Berliner.
Apparently, the sole surviving copy (which I am researching) exists in Canada (Berliner Archive) and I will attempt to see if there is already an audible version or a transcript.
The "occurrence" may well be something relating to the original monetary judgment in 1856. Both Sumner and Sunderland were strongly anti-slavery.
BestAllen
Allen Koenigsberg
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-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Feaster <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, Nov 1, 2021 5:02 pm
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Berliner recording 1898
Interesting question! I see that a footnote in Edward Lillie Pierce's *Memoir
and Letters of Charles Sumner *mentions that "two clergymen of the city" of
Washington DC, including "Dr. Sunderland" -- presumably Byron -- had
"condemned the assault" on Sumner. From context, it looks as though this
condemnation came right after a judge had let off the attacker, Preston
Brooks, with a $300 fine that was perceived as a slap on the wrist.
https://books.google.com/books?id=PVJ1YzA8UuYC&pg=PA488
So Byron Sunderland seems to have given a semi-well-known oration back in
1856 objecting to the sentencing, which I suppose would have been an
"occurrence after the assault." Maybe he re-performed part of it into the
graphophone for historical interest, or as a highlight of his past
accomplishments as an orator?
- Patrick
On Mon, Nov 1, 2021 at 2:21 PM Allen Koenigsberg <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi
> I note from Paul Charosh's fine book that Rev Byron Sunderland (b.
> 1819) made two discs:
> 5012 - 'The Lord's Prayer & 23rd Psalm' - April 9, 1898 5013 -
> 'Occurrence following assault on Senator Sumner' - date not specified,
> perhaps same as above
> The first survives at LoC (online) - is there a good image of the center
> data? Only one take, I presume.
> The second is only known from a "Wonder" (Double-Bell) catalog from 1898
> where the first name is also just a "B."There, the catalog # is 15013 since
> Wonder generally just added a "1" prior to the usual Berliner disc number.
> The title has never been seen in an actual Berliner catalog as far as I
> know. No known surviving example.
> As most historically-inclined people know, this is a reference to the
> famous "caning" of Senator Charles Sumner, but many years before (May 1856)
> - over the issue of Slavery. What was so relevant in 1898 that it inspired
> such a recording??
>
> But the title of 5013 suggests that there is even an additional wrinkle,
> i.e. the contents are not about the beating per se, but an "occurrence"
> that followed...
>
> Does anyone know what Sunderland had in mind - he was quite religious
> and died in 1901. Did the record ever get transcribed in some way?
> TIA.
> Allen
> Allen Koenigsberg
> [log in to unmask]
>
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