Sound Recordings Collection

Part 6: Oval Office Sound Recordings

In addition to recordings of President Truman's speeches and press conferences, the Truman Library has a small collection of recordings that were made between 1945 and 1948 in the President's Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. While some of these recordings are entirely unintelligible and the remainder include long stretches when nothing can be heard except for background noise and/or static, a number of them do contain recordings of President Truman talking to visitors and White House staff members or engaged in telephone conversations, as well as recordings of the voices of workmen on various tasks in the Oval Office. The conversations in most instances are garbled with only occasional words and phrases being understandable, although Mr. Truman's voice is generally recognizable. An exception is a recording of the President's press conference of May 23, 1945, in which every word is audible.

All of the recordings listed below were recorded by the US Army Singal Corps.

Contact the Library for additional information concerning the history and provenance of the Oval Office sound recordings.