The MOEB has been digging through its archives to find telling objects, documents, and the life-stories of women. In the history of the recording industry in Montreal, as elsewhere, women were overshadowed by men, especially in the first fifty years of music reproduction. Part of our treasure includes stories about women organising labour in the…
To many music industry enthusiasts, the Berliner name carries an important historical weight. In fact, few people have had as large an impact on Canada’s music recording industry as Herbert Berliner. He was the eldest son of Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone record. Herbert was a savvy businessman, dedicated record maker, and talented…
Under the watchful eye of the dog Nipper, the hero of the Berliner Trademark, the permanent exhibition is an open reserve accessible to the public. You will find more than 400 objects well presented in this exhibition. Most of the objects are related to the history of 1001 Lenoir Street, which for 17 years was…
Virtual Exhibition
This virtual exhibition was created to pay homage to all those who have participated directly or indirectly in this fascinating story.
Text written by Timothy Hewlings.
Adaptation and integration by François Pilon.
The exhibition 100 Years of Radio Broadcasting in Montreal explores the birth of Radio in Montreal. The exhibition is online (click here) as part of the Centennial of Broadcasting in Canada project. The exhibition received financial support from the “Montreal Heritage: Enhancing Neighborhoods” program. The exhibition also benefited from the support of generous donors to…
With the Expo ’67, industrial design in Canada was in full swing. Many Canadians were among the designers, that blossomed during the summer of the “Man and his world”. Now, 50 years later, the MOEB celebrates a comeback of this era, rich in dashing creations. From that moment on, stereo systems featured a futuristic vibe,…
World War II only lasted 6 years, but it literally transformed Canadian society. Over the course of those years, the country became an important industrial producer with an enviable position on the world stage. This transformation was very visible in Montreal, which at the time was still the metropolis of Canada. Many local businesses experienced…
On September 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany . During the six long years that followed, the radio will become the best tool to inform and entertain. The RCA factory, located in Saint-Henri, is now at the forefront of the development of mass communication. Military radios are becoming essential to the war effort ….
This exhibition retraced the history of the record, from its invention in 1887 until today. Also presented were other historical technological advances that made possible the reproduction of sound, such as Thomas Edison’s wax cylinder. The exhibition received financial support from the Montreal Heritage: Enhancing Neighborhoods program.
The 20th century, the century of the advent of telecommunications, left behind a thousand and one inventions produced in increasing quantities. The Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner invites you on a journey through time.
This is the story of two generations of Jewish immigrants, who have helped to make Montreal an important center of technological developments in the 20th century. This story began in the German city of Hanover in 1851 with the birth of Emile Berliner. The son of a well-known Talmudic merchant and an amateur musician, Emile…
In the heart of Montreal’s Saint-Henri district between Lacasse, Lenoir and Saint-Antoine streets, we find a former complex of industrial buildings with a little-known past. Home to a world famous company, they play one of the most important roles in Canadian history. We invite you to discover the days when RCA Victor was a leader…
The ongoing love story which ties the City of Montréal to the phenomenon that is Jazz will soon reach, if it hasn’t done so yet, its hundredth anniversary. For more than half a century, this story was the driving force behind the city’s renowned nightlife before becoming, in the last 30 years, the raison d’être…
Coming out of the “Great Darkness”. Leaving the Grande noirceur –era behind … In the years that followed the end of World War II, a need for change began to sweep the planet. All over the world, values and views of all kinds – social, political, economic and religious – began to shift. In Québec,…
Several important pages of the history of the recording Industry were written in Montreal and, in particular, the St-Henri district. It is here, in fact, in the block bordered by Lacasse, St-Jacques and Lenoir streets that three of the industry’s most important companies prospered on Canadian soil. First came the Berliner Gramophone Company of Canada,…
A hundred years ago, on the 24th of December 1906 to be precise, an inventor by the name of Reginald Fessenden sent out a transmission combining voice and music over the airwaves from Boston. In the opinion of many experts, this was the birth of broadcasting, as we know it today. A Canadian had just…
In January 2006, the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner will be celebrating its tenth anniversary of public exhibitions. The acquisition of objects is among the principal, even the essential, functions of a museum. The Musée des ondes Emile Berliner accepts donations and bequests. That is how, over the years, the collection of the Musée des…
Would you believe that a hundred years have come and gone since the day Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone, opened the first Canadian recording studio on Peel Street in Montreal? The year was 1904 and very few people could have imagined at the time the full impact that this event would have on…
At the dawning of the 20th century, numerous inventors contributed to radically changing our world. One of these pioneers, Guglielmo Marconi, turned the world of communications upside down. His invention of the wireless telegraph made distances disappear. The Marconi name became synonymous with wireless communications the world over. It gave birth to a brotherhood of…
The science exhibition “The Audio Chain” will present the technological evolution of devices for the recording and reproduction of sound. A transient and intangible phenomenon, sound has always fascinated people. Indeed, as long ago as the 5th century B.C., Greek sages had discovered that there was a mathematical relationship between musical notes. Two centuries later,…
From the diaphotoscope to the mechanical television, from the 3-inch screen to the TV Dinner, the small screen has spread throughout the world in its 100 years of existence, and has become the number one communication tool in the world, with more than one billion televisions sold to date. September 6, 1952, was the official…
The exhibition “Year after year… The donations to the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner” presents a selection of our best acquisitions: 150 objects given as donations by more than 50 different donors. More than one hundred different donors, over the last five years, have helped to create the collection of the Musée des ondes Emile…
In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the world’s first apparatus for the recording and reproduction of sound. To make a recording, the user had to speak into a horn with a small diaphragm at the other end. The resulting sound waves caused variations in air pressure that, in turn caused the diaphragm to oscillate….
EDMOND ARCHAMBAULT Saint-Paul-L’Emite (Le Gardeur), 1872 – Montréal, 1947) After completing studies at the Collège de L’Assomption, Edmond Archambault moved to Montréal where the musical life was far more exciting. He became a piano teacher and the organist of the Church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre. In 1896, with only $130.00, Edmond Archambault opened a counter to sell…
The inventor, Leo Hendrik Baekeland Born in Gand, Belgium in 1863, Leo Baekeland obtained his doctorate in 1884 at the tender age of 21. Following a short career as a professor at the University of Bruges, the brilliant chemist immigrated to the New World and the United States. It was there that Baekeland was to…
Have you heard of Nipper? No! Well you are probably familiar with the picture of the Fox-Terrier listening transfixed, immobile, to a gramophone. The artist Barraud, painted him listening to “His Master’s Voice” using a gramophone, the State-of-the-Art in audio technology at the turn of the 20th century. While being famous as the RCA Victor…
Few people know that Montreal was one of the hubs of the sound and recording industry in the last century, a great story to which the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner invites us. Visit of an institution which conceals real treasures. Some may remember the dog Nipper, the one we saw listening to the voice…
First exhibition at the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner created in 1996. The virtual exhibition “From the gramophone to the satellite” presents the history of the creation of the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Co. in 1895, by the German Emile Berliner and of the development of this factory until its closure in 1978.