AES Historical Committee Report 2003-10-08

The presently active AES Historical Committee projects [as numbered in our Guidelines] are as follows:

5 [Organize and maintain an archive relating to the history of the Audio Engineering Society itself.]

• The Japan Section submitted a History of the Japan Section, in Japanese, in 2000, with a request to have it translated. We have found volunteers (Jim Anderson and Kazunori Sugiyama) who have translated about 25 % of the document, and will be completing it soon. We will put PDF versions of both the Japanese- and English-language histories on the HC website.
• We need a volunteer in the New York City area to help project-leader Roger Furness with organizing and cataloging the history of the AES itself.

8 [Encourage each Local Section and each Convention Committee to organize an appropriate session on the history of audio  engineering, or a display on an appropriate historical subject. When requested, provide information to help them to do so.]

•  AESHC members under the leadership of Alex Balster organized and presented a very successful  historical exhibit for the 114th Convention in Amsterdam. 
• The Historical Committee is presenting a Historical Exhibit at this (New York) Convention, organized by David Baker. 
• There will be an open meeting of the Historical Committee on Saturday, Oct 11, from 10:00 to 12:00, in a room to be announced. You are all invited to attend the exhibits and the meeting.

9 [Create and operate two AES HC email reflectors: a Steering Committee Reflector for discussions of purely administrative matters of the Committee; and a general Historical Reflector for discussions of actual historical matters.]

• The email reflector continues on the “recordist.com” server, with thanks to David Josephson.

10 [Create an AESHC web site and an FTP site on which to publish the information compiled in the following sections.]

• We continue to upgrade and add to our website. We have added many new links. 
• In 2003, Executive Director Roger Furness invited us to put the Historical Committee’s website onto the AES server. Our thanks to the HC Webmaster Howard Sanner, AES Webmaster Steve Johnson, and John K Chester for doing the move.

11 [Create a directory of museums, libraries, archives, and private collections that contain historic audio equipment or documents about the history of audio engineering.]

• We now have a project leader for this project — Myles Cochran Davis — and he will be telling the HC meeting about his plans.

12 [Devise a catalog for classifying the inventions and developments made in audio engineering, based on the work of  HK Thiele.]

• We are sad to report the death of Prof. Manfred Krause, who was the project leader for the HK Thiele Archive.

13 [Record oral histories (sound only, sound with video, and/or sound with still photographs) of important figures in the  history of audio engineering.]

• The project continues with more new interviews.
• We continue to solicit your suggestions both for interviewers and for further interviewees, especially for countries outside of the US.

Jay McKnight, Chair
AES Historical Committee

Report written on  2003-10-08