At 22,000+ items, the newly acquired Marty Stuart Collection is the largest public collection in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. A preservation gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, as well as support from Loretta and Jeff Clarke, made this acquisition possible. The Marty Stuart Collection contains artifacts from over a century of country music history. It includes stage wear, instruments, original song manuscripts and more.
Artifacts from Country Music Hall of Fame members Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Charley Pride, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and more are in Stuart’s collection. He also donated items from his career, including photographs he took. At the museum, these artifacts will join Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present. This permanent exhibition chronologically takes visitors through country music’s history. With the addition of Stuart’s collection, the display will offer more diversity as artifacts are rotated in.
“We’re incredibly grateful for Marty’s philanthropy — and a lead gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation with major support from Loretta and Jeff Clarke — for enabling the museum to safeguard and share this historic collection in perpetuity,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at a special ceremony to celebrate the collection. “We’re here to celebrate this remarkable addition to our collection, revel in Marty’s extraordinary foresight and collecting skill, and rejoice in a new chapter for this museum.”
Inside the museum’s Ford Theater, many special performances took place to mark the occasion. Chapel Hart performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”. Charlie Worsham played a 1970 Fender Telecaster previously owned by Pop Staples, who recorded the song. Vince Gill performed “Marty & Me”, a song co-written with Stuart. For the performance, Gill played George Jones’ 1958 Martin D-28 guitar. Chris Stapleton performed “Why Me Lord” which Johnny Cash recorded. For the occasion, Stapleton played Cash’s Martin D-45 acoustic guitar. The ceremony concluded with Marty Stuart performing Flatt & Scruggs’ “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”. Shawn Camp played Lester Flatt’s Martin D-28.
“This is a top of the world moment for me,” said Marty Stuart. “To have my collection live alongside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s is monumental, to be a part of a ceremony and witness the Congress of Country Music and its people formally welcomed into the family of country music is a spiritual high. And, to share such a gathering with family and friends from both Nashville, as well as Mississippi, is just the best. Such a day only comes along once in a lifetime.”
As part of the acquisition agreement, the HoF has entered a long-standing collaboration with Stuart’s Congress of Country Music. It will lend artifacts from its permanent collection to the Congress for display in the Philadelphia, Mississippi museum once opens. Additionally, the museum will provide preservation, education and administrative consultation and support to the Congress.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.