WEST ORANGE, N.J. – Twenty-first-century audiences can now hear the voice of Otto von Bismarck, one of the most important figures of the 19th century.

The National Park Service announced this week that it has identified his voice on a rare recording found in Thomas Edison’s library.

Scholars say the wax cylinder dates to around 1889, when Edison sent a colleague to the World’s Fair in Paris and then on to Germany to use newly improved sound recording equipment.

It’s the only known recording of the German chancellor’s voice.

Other cylinders found in the same box in Edison’s West Orange, N.J. lab, include orchestras and choirs. The sounds were identified as part of a project to catalog all the recordings found in Edison’s lab.

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