DLyons, excellent source material you posted. It appears that Josh also found the book by Major Beniowski, on archive.org
I prefer to call it the Phonetic System, but since everyone knows it as the “Major System” I sometimes call them by both in the same sentence (for example: “when I was using the Major ‘Phonetic’ System”, etc.).
I just started reading a few pages here and there in the book that DLyons posted, entitled On Memory and the Rational Means of Improving it by Dr. Edward Pick, and it looks really good. The author is a very insightful writer with excellent command of his craft. I also found another book by Dr. Edward Pick that looks very good entitled Lectures of Memory Culture. I also posted that link below. At the end of his book On Memory and the Rational Means of Improving it, he mentions a course he did where he demonstrated a vast amount of knowledge he memorized on a wide range of topics. Fascinating!