Did you know that before cassette tapes and digital files, there were Dictabelts—flexible vinyl recordings that captured history in real-time?

February 11, 2025

One of Alaska’s greatest adventurers, Clyde “Slim” Williams, used this now-obscure format in 1955 to record his life’s wildest stories—his travels by dog team, his encounters with Indigenous communities, and his advocacy for an Highway long before it was built. Instead of writing his memoirs, he spoke them into a Dictabelt recorder, a once-popular device that etched sound onto a rotating vinyl belt.

Williams recorded 32 Dictabelts for his friend, writer Richard “Dick” Morenus, who later used them as the foundation for the 1956 book Sourdough: The Story of Slim Williams. These recordings, now preserved in the UAF Oral History Program, offer a rare firsthand account of a life spent exploring and surviving in the Alaskan wilderness.

Dictabelts, or Memobelts were made from 5-mil thick transparent vinyl, they are about 3.5 inches wide and about 12 inches around. To record on the belts, the belts were loaded onto a pair of metal cylinders, put under tension and then were rotated. Audio was inscribed with an audio-signal-modulated helical groove by a stylus that moved slowly over the rotating belt. Each belt records approximately 15 minutes. This system was very popular in its day as they provided better audio capture than wax cylinders. The belts could be folded for storage and fit into a letter-size envelope.

 

Five red squares laid on a wooden table that loop like fruit roll upsMemobelts, or as more commonly known, Dictabelts were an analog audio recording medium
first introduced by the American Dictaphone Company in 1947. 

 

The Oral History Program was established in 1981 to collect, preserve, and provide access to audio and video recordings that provide insight into Alaska's history and the people who have contributed to its heritage.

With more than 16,000 audio recordings, the UAF Oral History Collection captures the voices and stories of Alaska’s past. Many of these recordings—including Slim’s—are available to explore online.

Archival images of Clyde "Slim" Williams courtesy of UAF Rasmuson and Polar Regions

Slim Williams
Williams with his dog team and sled on a stretch of dirt road. 
Slim riding a bucking two-wheeler through the muskeg
Slim riding a bucking two-wheeler through the muskeg
Slim Williams standing outside "the cabin"
Slim Williams standing outside "the cabin"
Slim Williams interviewed by reporter from radio station
Slim Williams interviewed by reporter from radio station

Want to listen for yourself?

There are three ways to access these and thousands of other historic recordings:

  1. UAF Library Catalog – Search the UAF Oral History Collection and stream digitized recordings.
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  2. & Polar Regions Digital Repository – Browse historical audio collections, including radio programs.
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  3. Project Jukebox – An interactive website integrating audio, transcripts, maps, and historic photographs.
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Between 2023 and 2024, over 28,000 people visited Project Jukebox. The five most popular projects included the Raven Story, The Exxon Valdez Project Jukebox, Dog Mushing in Alaska, Ethnobotany, Ethnomedicine and Traditional Healing, and Denali Mountaineering.

The unique glimpses into people's personal lives and memories provided through these oral history collections bring history and culture alive in ways that traditional history, public records and data cannot, adding depth to our understanding of the past by letting us experience it at an individual level. 

Importantly, oral histories fill in missing narratives from communities that are under-documented through traditional papers and narratives, helping round out the story of our past, and giving voice to people who otherwise could have been forgotten in the narrative of history.

🎥 Watch below to hear a few of Slim Williams’ stories from the digitized recordings.

Special thanks:

  • Dictabelts were digitized thanks to a grant from the Rasmuson Rare Book Endowment Fund.
  • The UAF Elmer E. Rasmuson Library and Polar Regions Collections and Archives faculty and staff.