The Marr Sound Archives was established in 1986, with a foundation gift of 42,000 sound recording from Gaylord Marr and his wife Olga. An Associate Professor of Communication Studies at UMKC, Marr pioneered the use of historic audio/visual recordings in the classroom. “Why talk about the political climate of Munich in Sept., 1938,” Marr asked, “when students can hear the voices of the participants and newscasters on the spot, reporting events as they unfold?” The Sound Archives is named in Marr’s honor. The collection quickly outgrew its original location in two rooms on the second floor of the General Library. When the library was renovated in 1992, the Sound Archives moved to the ground floor, adjacent to the Music/Media Library. The archives’ spacious new home and the 2010 construction of the RooBot, an automated storage and retrieval system, allowed for continued growth. Today the collection has grown to number over 350,000 recordings, with a focus on the American experience as reflected in recorded sound. The collection features a wide variety of music genres including jazz, blues, soul, country, popular music, rock and roll, folk, classical and opera. In addition historic voices and authors reading their own works and vintage radio programs make up a large part of the collection. The holdings encompass a wide range of historic formats including LPs, 78s, 45s, cylinders, transcription discs, instantaneous-cut discs and open-reel tapes. The Sound Archives serves the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, as well as local community members and scholarly researchers around the globe. Over the years, the Marr Sound Archives has contributed recording and reference services to a number of projects including Robert Altman’s Kansas City, Merchant-Ivory Films’ Mr. Bridge; Capitol Records 50th Anniversary; a complete reissue of the recordings of Julia Lee on the Bear Family label of Germany; documentaries on the Kansas City Monarchs, Walter Cronkite and Harry Truman; the radio show This I Believe; and the Mississippi Blues Trails.
