Marty Stuart’s Collection Finds A Home At Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum

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Museum CEO Kyle Young and Marty Stuart backstage at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Marty Stuart‘s extensive collection of more than 22,000 country artifacts has become part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s permanent collection.

The Marty Stuart Collection spans over a century of country music history and includes more than 1,000 stage wear and clothing items, 100 instruments, song manuscripts and more. Items in the collection include significant 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 many others. The collection also includes items from Stuart’s own career, including his expansive collection of photos he has taken, which have been exhibited at museums and published in books.

Pictured (L-R): Chris Stapleton, Devynn Hart of Chapel Hart, Charlie Worsham, Danica Hart and Trea Swindle of Chapel Hart, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young, Marty Stuart, Vice President of Development at Country Music Hall of Fame, Ben Hall, Vince Gill, Museum’s Vice President of Services Michael Gray, Mike Bub, Shawn Camp, Johnny Warren, Jeff White, Charlie Cushman and Jimmy Stewart attend in celebration of Marty Stuart’s collection donation to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The momentous occasion was celebrated during a special ceremony in the museum’s Ford Theater, illuminating Stuart’s passion for country music and its preservation. The event featured several performances with historic instruments from Stuart’s collection.

Country trio Chapel Hart performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” with Charlie Worsham playing a 1970 Fender Telecaster once owned by Pops Staples, the patriarch and a member of gospel and R&B group the Staple Singers, who recorded the song. Vince Gill played “Marty & Me,” a newly written song by Gill and Stuart, and played George Jones’ 1958 Martin D-28 guitar.

Chris Stapleton performed “Why Me Lord,” which was recorded by Johnny Cash and written and previously recorded by Kris Kristofferson, on Cash’s Martin D-45 acoustic guitar, which also belonged to Hank Williams. Stuart closed the ceremony with a performance of Flatt & Scruggs’ “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” with Shawn Camp playing Lester Flatt’s Martin D-28 guitar from the museum’s permanent collection.

“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 Clark—for enabling the museum to safeguard and share this historic collection in perpetuity,” says Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “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.”

Connie Smith and Marty Stuart attend celebration of his collection donation to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

As part of the acquisition terms, the museum has entered a longstanding collaboration with Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music in his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where it will exhibit items from the Marty Stuart Collection at its forthcoming museum. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will loan additional artifacts from its own permanent collection for display, as well as provide preservation, education and administrative consultation and support to the Congress.

“This is a top of the world moment for me,” says 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.”

Lorie Hollabaugh
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