A Sightseer's Guide to EngineeringNational Society of Professional EngineersNational Engineer's Week
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The Victor Talking Machine Company's trademark, "His Master's Voice," originally portrayed an Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. After Edison-Bell refused to buy the painting, claiming, "Dogs don't listen to phonographs," artist Francis Berraud painted out the phonograph and painted in a Gramophone.


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Johnson Victrola Museum
Museum Square, 375 S. New St.
Dover, DE 19901
302/739-4266
Web Site
See and listen to the evolution of recorded sound. Free. 
Hours of Operation: Tues.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Sun. and Mon. Need a map?
Laid out like a 1920s music store, this museum is dedicated to the memory of Dover-born engineer Eldridge Reeves Johnson, who founded the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901 and helped invent the Victrola. Dozens of mechanical "talking machines," from early wind-ups to prototype jukeboxes, play period recordings. Photographs document early recording techniques, with entire orchestras crowded around huge megaphones.
 
 
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Johnson Victrola Museum