United States Phonograph Company
| Founded | 1893 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Victor Emerson |
| Headquarters | , United States |
The United States Phonograph Company was a producer of cylinder phonograph records and related supplies during the 1890s. Established in early 1893 by Victor Emerson, who was previously the manager of the New Jersey Phonograph Company, it later included inventors Simon S. Ott and George E. Tewkesbury, known for developing an automatic phonograph. Headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, the company emerged as a leading supplier of records following the dissolution of the North American Phonograph Company in August 1894. Its main competitor was the Columbia Phonograph Company, which had a partnership with the American Graphophone Company to manufacture graphophones, blank wax cylinders, and both original and duplicate records.
USPC also produced duplicate records, enabling it to establish a recording operation comparable in scale to Columbia’s. Its location near New York City allowed access to prominent performers of the 1890s such as George J. Gaskin, Dan W. Quinn, Len Spencer, Russell Hunting, and Issler's Orchestra. Around mid-1896, Emerson departed to head Columbia’s recording division.
In 1897, USPC partnered with Edison’s National Phonograph Company to equip phonographs with Frank Capps’ spring motors. These advancements helped lower manufacturing costs and supported the shift of phonographs from devices intended for public exhibitions to consumer household products. Nonetheless, in October 1899, a court injunction prohibited USPC from producing duplicate records; subsequently, the company supplied original records exclusively to the National Phonograph Company.
The later U.S. Phonograph Company based in Cleveland, Ohio is not connected to this entity.