Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?

The very first recording by Edison was Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Yessiree, Acquiunk. The wizard of Menlo Park!

Sound recording preceded Edison, somewhere in the Simthsonian's archives is a recording of Abraham Lincoln's voice, but it has been lost.

http://members.aol.com/allenamet/BirthRec.htm

Amazing info, Acquiunk. Who would you nominate for this honor?

I tend to dislike lists such as this, because the criteria used to create them is always limiting and excludes as much as it includes. I preference would be to save as large a sample of possible of all types of recordings and let each future generation sort out its own preferences.

Perhaps you're right. Frankly, I would like to see an ordinary person in that list. One who was not so famous.