rich this is for you - music (and other recordings) WITH links!

of course it's not the library of congress collection but some of these recordings sound interesting (i've not listened to any yet)

Historians strive to save old sounds
By Randy Dotinga Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor David Levine's iPod is filled with exactly 4,768 songs, including a handful of tunes by turn-of-the-century pop stars with names like Anna Chandler, Will F. Denny, and Harry Lauder.
If they don't sound familiar, don't worry. You're not out of touch. The fact is that these singers haven't been big for about 100 years.


Mr. Levine and other music fans are listening to long-forgotten pop music - along with 1900-era performances and speeches - thanks to a landmark effort to preserve audio of the past.
With the help of donations from collectors, the University of California at Santa Barbara has digitized songs and spoken-word performances from more than 6,000 cylinders, the early precursors of vinyl records and compact discs.........

u of ca at santa barbara cylinder preservation project