The Library Of Congress debuts the National Jukebox—like if Pandora had a "Woodrow Wilson" station

By Sean O'Neal | May 12, 2011 | 7:34pm

Aux Features Music

As reported by NPR, the Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment have just unveiled the National Jukebox, a new website offering free streams of over 10,000 historical recordings—the largest collection ever made available online. Of course, as of right now, the selection is limited solely to recordings made by the Sony-controlled Victor Talking Machine Company, a relic of older, better days when companies told you what they did right up front in their name, without all the gimcrack and foofaraw.

But even within those parameters, there’s still some choice cuts, including what archivists call the first jazz recording ever released, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s “Livery Stable Blues” from 1917, the first-ever recording of “Rhapsody In Blue” with George Gershwin at the piano, and various spoken-word pieces, poetry readings, and speeches from the likes of Woodrow Wilson. Be forewarned: The site cautions that these “historical recordings may contain offensive language,” so keep that in mind before you crank up Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 speech on “the farmer and the businessman” and he starts dropping “knickerbocker”-bombs all willy-nilly.