Not long after Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, researchers began to put it to use. A new exhibit at the American History Museum explores the early recordings Alexander Graham Bell made at his Volta Lab in D.C. — including one of his own voice. And a new book explains how researchers at the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnography used the nascent phonograph to record and preserve voices from cultures they believed to be dying. Kojo explores D.C.’s role in these early sound recordings.