While there is no shortage of interest in the album cover medium, there’s no obvious web page out dedicated to the world’s first record cover. I’m apparently I’m not the only one looking for it (See: “Anyone have a scan?“) I’ve seen scattered images from articles about Steinweiss but I’ve not found anything resembling a Shrine.

Such a noteworthy artifact in the history of mass media screams for its own page. Google returns 300+ results for the phrase “Sgt Pepper’s Album Cover” but nothing definitive for the phrase “First Album Cover.” Here’s my humble stab at such a page.

For the complete history of the album cover and its creator, just hit Wikipedia or pick up a copy of “For the Record.” Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic sleeves.Recently, I came across an apparently original edition of this album and was able to pick it up for almost nothing. Someone unwittingly dumped it onto eBay for chump change. I mean, if they’d known what they had, I would’ve at least expected the auction to include “World’s First Album Cover!” and a reserve price of $100, $500, who knows? Instead, I picked it up for less than $30.

I have been eager to get it posted for all the graphic designers, media theorists and vinyl enthusiasts out there googling “steinweiss +first album cover.” I wanted to get these images out into the world for broader circulation.

Front Cover Closeup

Marquee should read “By Rodgers, Hart and Steinweiss”

Album Spine

It looks exactly like a hardcover book when closed. Like they say, with any truly new medium the first thing people usually do is crank out simulacra of old, familiar media.

The 78

Before the LP (Long Playing) record, 78 records were usually 10 inch platters that held around 3 minutes of music!

In other words, this Rodgers and Hart collection of Smash Song Hits includes 4 separate platters! More bulk than a modern CD box set!

 

Inside Front Cover and Platter 1 Sleeve

Generic Inside-Back Cover

I’m guessing the above back-inside-cover was the original. Let’s call it the

“Let’s not spend any more money than we already have on this @#$% thing by adding even more images and hifalutin’ design this 23 year old punk is probably going to cost us all our jobs with his crazy idea anyways“

 

Shelf-Aware™ Version

I’m guessing the ABOVE version, spotted inside an otherwise seemingly identical version of Smash Song Hits is the “I can’t believe this whole album cover thing worked and we’re selling four times more of these than the regular covers, the punk was right, hey, why not give EVERY album a cover and hey, whaddya know, we’ve got ourselves a built-in billboard here, we may as well USE it!“

 

Shelf-Awareness, incidentally, is a term we coined at Amplifier. It describes the publisher/label/studio-centric pattern of encoding a particular work of art(?) with advertisements for other like-minded comparables available from the same entity. In other words, it’s the endless tendency to make content into an advertisement for other content. Whether it’s trailers in front of movies, endorsements by same-publisher authors on backs of books, or in this case, ads for other albums by the same label, it’s a recurring phenomena and it’s one that often signifies a wasted artistic opportunity.

So what does a medium from 1938 have to do with Internet-based content?
Everything.
78s shipped in brown kraft paper sleeves for years before someone thought to change this. Today, most orders still ship in brown corrugate boxes. It’s only a matter of time before this generic wrapper is completely transformed into a new medium altogether.