Object Details
- Sony
- Description
- This Sony "Walkman" portable tape player dates from the early 1980s. Originally introduced in 1979 as the “Soundabout,” two people could listen simultaneously while a small microphone permitted them to converse without removing their headsets. Powered by two AA batteries or an optional rechargeable battery pack, the recorder sold well until the decline of the cassette format in the mid 2000s.
- Until the middle of the twentieth century portable recording equipment could be quite heavy. The introduction of small transistor radios in 1954 marked a new era in portable entertainment. Philips’ invention of a compact recording cassette in 1962 provided a convenient medium for music distribution.
- Credit Line
- from Sony Corporation of America
- ca 1980
- ID Number
- 1987.0127.01
- accession number
- 1987.0127
- catalog number
- 1987.0127.01
- Object Name
- magnetic recording device
- tape recorder
- cassette player
- Other Terms
- tape recorder; Audio Devices
- Physical Description
- plastic (parts material)
- metal (parts material)
- Measurements
- player: 5 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 1 1/8 in; 13.97 cm x 8.89 cm x 2.8575 cm
- Related Publication
- Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Music & Musical Instruments
- Popular Entertainment
- Communications
- American Enterprise
- American Stories exhibit
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_714276
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-6240-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
