Vogue Picture Discs in the Lewis Deneumoustier Collection

Between May 1946 and April 1947, the Vogue Picture Record label produced around eighty 78rpm discs.  While today the discs are best known for their colorful artwork, in the 1940s they were also respected for their innovative use of vinyl, instead of the more common shellac.  This resulted in a high quality recording with very little surface noise.  The label recorded a wide range of musical styles: from country to jazz to children’s music to Latin music.

Vogue discs sold for around one dollar each (three dollars for multi-disc albums), which was more than twice the average price of material from competing labels.  Combined with Vogue’s difficulty in signing leading popular performers of the day, this contributed to its short lifespan.

This exhibit highlights the five Vogue discs that are among the more than 25,000 recordings in the Archives of Appalachia’s Lewis Deneumoustier Collection at East Tennessee State University.  The exhibit includes scans of each disc, brief excerpts of each respective recording, and additional information including background context and suggestions for further study.