78rpm gramophone record, "Uncle Mac's Nursey Rhymes", H.M.V., about 1931

Ten-inch gramophone record, shellac, with a printed paper label on either side in the centre. The record is in a standard HMV paper sleeve, printed in magenta. The track listing is as follows:

Side 1:
(a) Girls and Boys
(b) Sing a Song of Sixpence
(c) Little Bo-peep
(d) Humpty Dumpty

Side 2:
(a) The Mulberry Bush
(b) Ding Dong Dell
(c) Polly, put the kettle on
(d) Three Blind Mice

Given by Susan Brandon

Given to the MoC by Susan Brandon in 2015 [2016/384].

The donor (b. October 1944) recalled in June 2016: "I am not sure when we first were given this record, my brother and I, but it was always popular. We learnt all the nursery rhymes and also loved listening to Children’s Favourites on Saturday mornings and to Children’s Hour, when I remember Uncle Mac being the voice for Larry the Lamb. It all seems so different now with young children singing along to pop songs and many not even learning nursery rhymes any more. My husband and I were remembering some of the other songs from Saturday mornings that probably would be scoffed at by young children now… eg: I'm a Pink Toothbrush, How Much is That Doggy in the Window?, The Runaway Train Came Down the Track, and many more. The innocence of childhood, when children were allowed to be children rather longer than now."

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, his early recordings were made onto wax-impregnated paper, then onto tin foil. Better quality and more sturdy wax cylinder records followed around a decade later. Laterally-cut discs were invented by Emile Berliner, who named his playback system the ‘gramophone’ to distinguish it in the market from Edison’s cylinder-playing phonograph. Cylinders and discs coexisted until after the First World War, when the disc system became the most popular. The market opened up after the Berliner’s patents expired in 1919, this initially resulted in manufacturers creating machines and records which played at wildly varying speeds, although standardisation at 78rpm was achieved by 1925. Shellac compounds began to be used for records in the late-19th century, replacing hard (vulcanised) rubber as the most popular material. The ten inch format was standard after 1910, which typically allowed about three minutes of material to be recorded on each side.

Uncle Mac’s Nursery Rhymes” is a recording of eight traditional nursery rhymes. On side one is ‘Girls and Boys’; ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’; ‘Little Bo Peep’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’. On side two: ‘The Mulberry Bush’; ‘Ding Dong Dell’; ‘Polly, put the kettle on’ and ‘Three Blind Mice’. Derek McCulloch (aka Uncle Mac) was a fixture of BBC’s Children’s Hour from 1931-1950. His wish for the programme was that it should be encouraging, educational and stimulating, as well as strongly moralistic in tone. By 1939, the audience for the programme reached four million. McCulloch was also the voice of Larry the Lamb.

B.97-2015