This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to the marketing of phonographs and recordings in Europe and the selection of music, songs, and singers. Included is correspondence to and from Paul H. Cromelin of the National Phonograph Co., Ltd., in London pertaining to the shipment of music catalogs and trial records to West Orange. Other letters between Cromelin and Edison discuss negotiations with tenor Giovanni Martinelli and a demonstration of Edison's disc phonograph for tenor Jean de Reszke. Several of Cromelin's letters from April 1912 bear the notation: "Copy of letter presumably mailed on Titanic." There is also correspondence by Thomas Graf of the Edison Gesellschaft in Berlin and by Humbert F. Tosi, who was scouting operatic talent in Italy, Russia, and other countries and hoping to establish an office in Milan to represent Edison. Also included are a balance sheet for the Edison Gesellschaft; an agreement granting the sales agency for the Edison Business Phonograph in Switzerland to Hermann Moos of Zurich; an agreement between Augustus M. Baldwin and his financial backers regarding the sales agency of the National Phonograph Co. in China and India; and a summary of capital shares of the Edison Manufacturing Co., Ltd., in which Edison held majority control.
Approximately 90 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material consists of duplicates, letters of transmittal, and publicity material relating to singers. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.