2002
On January 27, 2003, the following 50 selections were announced by the National Recording Preservation Board.
| Recording or collection | Performer or agent | Year | National Archives |
|---|---|---|---|
Edison exhibition recordings (Group of three cylinders):
|
Thomas Edison | 1888–1889 | |
| Passamaquoddy Indians field recordings | Recorded by Jesse Walter Fewkes | 1890 | |
| "Stars and Stripes Forever" |
Military Band | 1897 | |
| Metropolitan Opera cylinder recordings (the Mapleson Cylinders) | Lionel Mapleson and the Metropolitan Opera | 1900–1903 | |
| Ragtime compositions piano rolls | Scott Joplin | 1900s | |
| 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech | Booker T. Washington | 1906 recreation | copy |
| "Casey at the Bat" | DeWolf Hopper | 1906 | |
| "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci | Enrico Caruso | 1907 | |
| "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" | Fisk Jubilee Singers | 1909 | |
| Lovey's Trinidad String Band | Lovey's Trinidad String Band | 1912 | |
| "Tiger Rag" | Original Dixieland Jazz Band | 1918 | |
| "Arkansas Traveler" and "Sallie Gooden" | Eck Robertson | 1922 | |
| "Downhearted Blues" | Bessie Smith | 1923 | |
| Rhapsody in Blue | George Gershwin, piano; Paul Whiteman Orchestra | 1924 | |
| Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings | Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven | 1925–1928 | |
| Victor Talking Machine Company sessions in Bristol, Tennessee | Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman, and others | 1927 | |
| Highlander Center Field Recordings Collection | Rosa Parks, Esau Jenkins and others | 1930s–1980s | |
| Bell Laboratories experimental stereo recordings | Philadelphia Orchestra; Leopold Stokowski, conductor | 1931–1932 | |
| "Fireside Chats" radio broadcasts | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1933–1944 | original |
| Harvard Vocarium record series | T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden and others | 1933–1956 | |
| "New Music Quarterly" recordings series | Henry Cowell, producer | 1934–1949 | |
| Description of the crash of the Hindenburg | Herbert Morrison | May 6, 1937 | original |
| The Cradle Will Rock (Marc Blitzstein) |
Original cast | 1938 | |
| "Who's on First?" |
Abbott and Costello | October 6, 1938 | |
| The War of the Worlds | Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air | October 30, 1938 | copy |
| "God Bless America" |
Kate Smith | November 11, 1938 | |
| The John and Ruby Lomax Southern States Recording Trip | John and Ruby Lomax | 1939 | |
| "Strange Fruit" | Billie Holiday | 1939 | |
| Grand Ole Opry |
Uncle Dave Macon, Roy Acuff, and others | October 14, 1939 | |
| Béla Bartók and Joseph Szigeti in Concert at the Library of Congress | Béla Bartók, piano; Joseph Szigeti, violin | 1940 | |
| The Rite of Spring | Igor Stravinsky conducting the New York Philharmonic | 1940 | |
| Blanton-Webster era recordings | Duke Ellington Orchestra | 1940–1942 | |
| "White Christmas" |
Bing Crosby | 1942 | |
| "This Land is Your Land" | Woody Guthrie | 1944 | |
| D-Day radio address to the Allied Nations |
Dwight D. Eisenhower | June 6, 1944 | original |
| "Ko Ko" | Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and others | 1945 | |
| "Blue Moon of Kentucky" | Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys | 1947 | |
| "How High the Moon" | Les Paul and Mary Ford | 1951 | |
| Songs for Young Lovers | Frank Sinatra | 1954 | |
| Sun Records sessions | Elvis Presley | 1954–1955 | |
| Dance Mania | Tito Puente | 1958 | |
| Kind of Blue | Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and others | 1959 | |
| "What'd I Say", Parts 1 and 2 | Ray Charles | 1959 | |
| The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan | 1963 | |
| "I Have a Dream" speech | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | August 28, 1963 | copy |
| "Respect" | Aretha Franklin | 1967 | |
| Philomel: For Soprano | Bethany Beardslee, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound |
1971 | |
| Precious Lord: New Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey | Thomas A. Dorsey, Marion Williams, and others |
1973 | |
| Crescent City Living Legends Collection |
1973–1990 | ||
| "The Message" | Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five | 1982 |
Read more about this topic: National Recording Registry