Ongoing History Daily: The original record collectors, part 3

Here’s one more story about how women, not men, were the original record collectors when recorded music first became available more than a hundred years ago.

Women of the house took on the job of searching out and purchasing records for the family’s new gramophones and phonographs. Partly because of this, the majority of clerks in record departments were female. And record labels knew their customers, too. Companies like Victor would send reps to sell records and talking machines to parent-teacher meetings, coffee get-togethers, and formal afternoon teas—all places dominated by women.

Men had almost zero involvement in any of this. Women made all the decisions on what records were played and over all the audio equipment brought into the house. Men were just expected to write the cheques.

Find Ongoing History Daily: The original record collectors, part 1 and two here.