ABSTRACT
Since the earliest years of the phonograph, catalogs have been used to promote recordings. The first printed catalog of a record company was that of the North American Phonograph Co. in 1890; Columbia’s first catalog came out later in the same year. Victor became famous for its elaborate catalogs beginning in about 1905, along with regular monthly supplements. By the 1920s, the offerings of the major labels became so extensive that specialty catalogs were necessary directed to specific markets. These included the wellknown Race, Old-Time, and Foreign (i.e., ethnic recordings) series. With the advent of LPs and the proliferation of many new labels, independent publishers attempted to develop comprehensive catalogs of new recordings, led by William Schwann who began his famous catalog in 1949. Complete printed catalogs from individual labels began to disappear, as it would be nearly impossible to list everything available, although smaller labels continued to use catalogs as marketing tools through the internet era of the mid-1980s when most listings of this type moved to electronic sites.
