Sounding Out the Archive - Exploring UNESCO’s Early Radio Endeavors

PhD Candidate Holden Carroll recently concluded his first visit to the UNESCO archives, located at the agency’s headquarters in Paris. He surveyed and collected a portion of the rich textual materials that help to account for UNESCO’s earliest uses of sound, including crucial sources related to the planning and prosecution of the international organization’s radio programme and its deployment of radio technology across a number of its early Fundamental Education initiatives.

With the generous guidance of archival staff, he also had the opportunity to tour parts of the headquarters basement to view the premises of UNESCO’s radio studio and the rooms that store thousands of audiotape reels––many of which have recently been digitized. This first visit was an illuminating introduction to the archive. Holden looks forward to future visits that will further engage UNESCO’s work with sound and radio into the 1960s, with a particular focus on the organization’s Technical Assistance missions.