Alexander Graham Bell's "Watson, come here. I need you" may have been the first words carried over wires, but "Mary had a Little Lamb" were the first to be recorded. Inventor Thomas Edison shouted rather than sang that ditty in 1879, at the first test of his sound recording technology.

Not far from his Menlo Park, New Jersey, lab lies New York City, a modern giant in the recorded music industry. A recent article in GRAMMY Magazine, a publication of the Recording Academy, describes how a long-sought Museum of Sound Recording (MOSR) is taking shape in and around the City that frequently their Grammy Awards.

Since MOSR's founding in the early 1990's and first fixed exhibitions in 1995, it has not had a home of its own. Starting this year, however, it will exist in a number of permanent locations around the New York metro area.

In 2002, MOSR took over and renovated the historic RKO Keith movie palace in Richmond Hill (Queens). Public tours of the 60,000 square foot space are set to begin this year.

This year also will see the start of renovation work on a much bigger space in Yonkers, just north of the city limits. The 150,000 square foot Boyce Thompson Institute will reopen in 2004.

Finally, the MOSR is involved in the development of SoundWave, an RCA history museum on the Camden, New Jersey waterfront, undergoing redevelopment and set for 2006 completion.

Taken together, the three locations will represent an important collection of technical and social history. The MOSR's exhibitions, now mostly in storage, will include everything from early Edison wax cylinders and gramophones, vintage audio tape recording equipment and mixing consoles, and the latest digital technologies.

MOSR's President and co-founder, Daniel Gaydos says, "Sound is such a basic part of humanity, and the ability to capture it and reproduce it is a relatively recent accomplishment. And the emotions that it evokes are astounding."

Visit the Museum of Sound Recording

Learn more about the NARAS, the Recording Academy