Sensory experiences are often considered triggers of memory, most famously a little French cake dipped in lime blossom tea. Sense memory can also be evoked in public history research through techniques of elicitation. In this article I reflect on different social science methods for eliciting sound memories such as the use of sonic prompts, emplaced interviewing, and sound walks. I include examples from my research on medical listening. The article considers the relevance of this work for the conduct of oral histories, arguing that such methods “break the frame,” allowing room for collaborative research connections and insights into the otherwise unarticulatable.

The Internet offers an unprecedented bounty of historic sound recordings, and the opportunity to listen in on the past has never been greater. But online sound archives also present new challenges. Public history websites must recover the meaning of sound as well as sound itself, and thereby engender a historicized mode of listening that tunes modern ears to the pitch of the past. The Roaring ’Twenties website attempts this via an interactive multimedia environment of sounds, images, and texts, recreating for its listeners the sonic culture of New York City circa 1929, a place and time defined by its din.

Between March 2013 and November 2014, the Amsterdam Museum had an installation that enabled visitors to compare a recent soundscape recording of the Dam Square with simulations of how the Dam sounded in 1895 and 1935. Constructing these simulations involved virtual acoustics software, recordings of historical artifacts, and research into the urban past. This paper critically discusses how the installation was made and received by comparing the acoustic authenticity ideal behind it with the aims of the early music movement. It concludes by reviewing alternative ways of using sound in history museums by reflecting on issues of framing, identification, sensory instruction, and embodiment.