One tradition for kicking off the Christmas Season along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad through northeastern Maryland was the annual lighting of the “Holly Tree by the tracks.” The B & O held the first public ceremony in 1948 when thousands of people gathered to ring in the season as lights from thousands of bulbs on the evergreen softly illuminated the Jackson, Maryland, hillside. For many years, the company dispatched a special train from Mount Royal Station to Jackson for the occasion. After 1971, the tree was dark until a group of volunteers started making sure the tree festively blazed for the holiday season.
Over the decades, I have periodically attended the ceremony, so when I came across an old 33 1/3 long playing record that captured the magic of the 1954 lighting, including carols, speeches, a visit by Santa, and the illumination, I was very excited. That old vinyl, a long unheard broadcast, has sat silently on a shelf for a long time. But thanks to an old record player I could enjoy the snap, crackle, and pop of the vinyl recording as the lost sound poured from the speakers.
Today, we can easily digitize sounds and video images to make research with these sources easier.
