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“Culture, Clearly Seen.” Black Cultural Intelligence

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14 flagships · 25 briefs · 8 dossiers · 765 entities — record updated October 3, 2026

Universal Recording Corporation

CTL-E-0176 · Institution · studio · 1940s–1980s

Verified evidence grade of this record

Bill Putnam's pioneering Chicago studio where blues, jazz, and R&B sessions were cut

The record

Sources

Record CTL-E-0176 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: BMI-002, MUSIC-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Universal Recording Corporation (CTL-E-0176),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-0176/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

Black Chicago’s musical record, kept frame by frame. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Girl listening to music at dance. Chicago, Illinois, Chicago
Girl listening to music at dance. Chicago, Illinois, ChicagoPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
The band at the Savoy Ballroom. Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941
The band at the Savoy Ballroom. Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Muddy Waters performing, 1976
Muddy Waters performing, 1976Photo: Lionel Decoster, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — none to date.