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If he goes back as far as the WE experimental recordings of the New York Philharmonic and other off the radio line sources in 1922-24, many of those discs are at the New York Philharmonic in their Archives and some were in the 10 CD set they issued. I was among those involved in finding and restoring them and still have a few non-Philharmonic items in the Western Electric experimental recording series that were pressed (in the Pathe factory in Brooklyn?) I was once told there was a hand-written notebook documenting this X- series. I had heard it was in the Sarnoff Library-Museum at one time but when I went there to look for it specifically in Princeton a few months before the Library closed, neither the librarian not I could find it. I believe much of the content of that library is at the Camden Historical Society. Incidemtally, Vitaphonr and other U.S. film synchro-discs were also pressed by RCA and, possibly, Brunswick. This is a "blind men describing an elephant by feeling it" story. Tim Brooks worked on the 4 volume matrix numerical covering the commercial records. Ross Laird did a similar study of Brunswick. The folks at Santa Barbara are publishing much Victor material on line from your period. Check DAHR. They include much fugitive stuff. Also check Mike Biel's thesis on transcription discs. He's also an ARSC member. And so much passes through dealer Kurt Nauk's hands including some of the Philharmonic "X" pressings that he may have a part of the story as well. You might plan on attending the ARSC conference in Bloomington this coming May. This is off the top of my head. Some corporate names may be approximate. Steve Smolian -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Witemeyer Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2015 1:23 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARSCLIST] BELL LABS/VITAPOHONE Hello ARSCI'm writing a biography of my father, Stanley Watkins, who was instrumental in the development of the Vitaphone system at Bell Labs. With Sam Warner he produced the soundtracks for Don Juan and The Jazz Singer. (That's a very brief summary and leaves a lot out!)I would be grateful for any information your organization might have about the sound recordings during this period. During the experimental process he personally was recorded on many trial discs at the Labs and I would love to know if any remain.Also, Stan Watkins was in charge of recording at Columbia in the early '20s and recorded Bessie Smith and Eddie Cantor. I have been unable to find out where to look for Columbia archives of this period - I usually get sent way back to 1960!I'd be glad of anything you can suggest which might be of help in my research.Thank you in anticipation.Barbara (Watkins) WitemeyerAlbuquerque, NM505-268-7579 =