Hello everyone,
Thanks for reading.
I am on a personal quest along with another gal from Hawaii for a missing recording made in Nov, 16, 1891 of Queen Liliuokalani addressing her people and the people of the world in both the Hawaiian language and in the English language also.
The story goes, a man believed to be from Germany but we know is of German descent visited Hawaii several days prior to the above date mentioned.
He brought with him (As we believe it may have been purchased in San Francisco) the first known Thomas Edison phonograph machine to ever arrive in Hawaii, we know it was a recorder and player combined, that's all.
The man's name that brought the Thomas Edison phonograph was "Charles Stoeckle." Mr. Stoeckle was also known as "The Phonograph Man" in the local newspapers stayed in Hawaii for several years traveling around with the device from home to home and island to island. It was a few years later when corresponding with Edison did he receive a newer model phonograph and there was also a record of him receiving 250 more wax cylinders totaling around 1,000 wax cylinders in his collection. We also know that Mr. Stoeckle traveled from Hawaii to Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, and on to New Zealand but we believe he may have went without the phonograph. For the simple reason that all of the historical papers we viewed out of Auckland revealed he had another talent and used it to make his money. The papers called him "The Jeweler Agent." where he crafted the art of making all kinds of jewelry designs out of gold with a machine they then termed a "Lightning rod."
We would like to believe that his collection of wax cylinders was large enough and worthy that someone may still today own it or have heard of this or knows more than we do?
We do know he made the Charles Stoeckle made several journeys back to San Francisco via Hawaii. There are two other reports of Stoeckle elsewhere, according to the newspaper stories, Stoeckle played a recorded greeting from Elijah H. Allen, consul general of Hawai'i and traveled there to either make the recording or pick it up for the queen? The other is from a Washington D.C. report that he received a shipment from someone or some company of 250 wax cylinder recordings, thus adding to his collection. One ship passenger list shows Charles Stoeckle as 19yrs old in 1895.
If anyone reading this would be so kind as to provide any further information regarding the "Queens recording" or this man "Charles Stoeckle" it would deeply be appreciated and it will help fill a very important part of Hawaii's history.
Thank you
S. Alongi