Here is a collection of links to information on the history of the PC sound and PC sound cards.

LGR – Evolution of PC Audio – As Told by Secret of Monkey Island

Evolution of PC Graphics and Sound as told by The Secret of Monkey Island

Before sound cards

Before Soundcards were common place, many of us had to make do with the PC Speaker for sound effects on our IBM PC Compatibles.

PC Speaker Wizardry: The History of Sound Before Soundcards

PCM Playback Via PC Speaker in DOS Games – NintendoComplete
Recording the IBM PC’s internal speaker: MS-DOS gaming at its loudest

Windows Audio Before Soundcards (Sounds Terrible) | Nostalgia Nerd

Some games utilised this limited medium to good effect, but Windows was always still lacking in sound. That is, until Microsoft developed the PC Speaker Audio driver for Windows. This allows Waveform sound to be played through the PC Speaker in Windows, so you could hear the fabulous startup sounds of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

Covox Speech Thing was a small hardware that was plugged to PC parallel port. It allowed to play back sounds at much better quality that PC speaker could ever do.

LGR Oddware – Covox Speech Thing LPT Sound Device
How the Covox and Disney Sound Source Worked.
IBM-PC COVOX Speech Thing Test

Sound cards era

Sound Blaster is a family of sound cards designed by Singaporean technology company Creative Technology (known in the US as Creative Labs). Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95.

The Original Sound Blaster : A Retrospective

The History of Creative Labs | 8Bit/16bit Sound card collection | JoeteckTips

30 Year old Sound Blaster Sound Cards from Creative Labs

ISA sound cards for DOS gaming (featuring Crystal, ESS and Aztech)

Massive OPL (FM) ISA Sound Card comparison

OPL2/3 Music on a NEW Yamaha FM Chip (YMF825)

The Gravis UltraSound or GUS is a sound card for the IBM PC compatible system platform, made by Canada-based Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. The Gravis UltraSound was notable at the time of its 1992 launch for providing the IBM PC platform with sample-based music synthesis technology (marketed as “wavetable”), that is the ability to use real-world sound recordings rather than artificial computer-generated waveforms as the basis of a musical instrument. It was very popular in the demoscene during the 1990s.

LGR – Gravis UltraSound: 1992 Sound Card Retrospective
Review and Demonstration of the Gravis Ultrasound
Second Reality by Future Crew (pc demo) (Captured from 486DX2-66 Overdrive, TSENG ET6000, Gravis Ultrasound ACE)

After sound cards era

Where Did SOUND CARDS Go?