Inventories of the Rudolf Pöch Collection at the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (The Audiovisual Research Archive)

Before venturing on his expedition to Papua New-Guinea (1904-1906), Rudolf Pöch had received phonographic equipment from the Archive in the form of the “Wiener Archiv-Phonograph”. From that journey, he brought along 94 recordings (voice, songs and instrumental music); 32 from Potsdamhafen (1904), 29 from Cape Nelson (1905) and 33 from Port Moresby (1906).

The “Kalahari“ collection comprises 65 recordings (voice and songs), 37 of which were made with an Edison phonograph, i.e. on wax cylinders, and then copied onto discs in the archive. All sound recordings are from 1908.

From 1910 to 1911, Pöch worked at the Phonogrammarchiv as Assistant; he was responsible for studio (voice) recording and documentation.

He produced 91 audio recordings during a large-scale project of investigation at prisoner-of-war camps in Eger, Reichenberg and Theresienstadt.

The Phonogrammarchiv holds original metal negatives and epoxide resin discs thereof made in 1962-64, which are used as originals for their re-recording today, as well as original documentations (protocols) that provide information on the date, place, type and content of the recordings and the individuals recorded.