2017. Got a private tour of the British Library Sound Archive, thanks to my friend Cheryl Tipp, curator of the Wild Life and Environmental Sounds section. Went down the highly secured basement of the building which holds an extensive collection of archived recordings, printed materials, catalogues, playback and recording artifacts and historical devices. Got to hold early wax cylinder recordings for Edison phonographs and a recorded master copy of a Winston Churchill speech among others. The Wild Life and Environmental Sounds Archive specifically has a collection of over 250,000 species and habitat recordings from all over the world.
It was Disneyland for a curious listener like me. I was screaming inside all throughout the tour. Happy day!