Marty Stuart Donates His Massive Collection of Country Music Artifacts to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Marty Stuart is more than a country music star. He’s also a passionate historian of the genre. Over the years, he has amassed one of the world’s largest collections of country music instruments, memorabilia, and other items. Recently, he donated his massive collection to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Yesterday (August 20), the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum announced that Stuart had donated his collection to the museum. The collection consists of more than 22,000 items including instruments, stage outfits, art, song manuscripts, and much more. This donation combined the largest private collection of country music artifacts with the world’s largest public collection.

[RELATED: Watch Marty Stuart Show Off His “Guest Book” Mandolin Featuring Signatures from Doc Watson, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, and More]

According to a press release, the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation provided a lead preservation gift, and Loretta and Jeff Clarke added additional monetary support. These donations will allow the CMHoF to give Stuart’s collection “ the highest level of artifact care and collection management.”

What Does Marty Stuart’s Collection Contain?

The Marty Stuart Collection represents more than 100 years of country music history. It includes more than 1,000 pieces of stage wear and clothing, 100 instruments, and 50 original song manuscripts among other things. The collection features items owned by country legends including Jimmy Rodgers, Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and many more. Additionally, it includes photos taken by Stuart over the course of his career.

Many of those items will be on display in the CMHoF Museum’s Sing My Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present public exhibition which takes visitors through the history of country music.

Stuart Struck a Deal with the CMHoF

Marty Stuart’s decision to donate his collection to the Country Music Hall of Fame doesn’t mean that he has shelved his plans to open a museum inside his Congress of Country Music in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The CMHoF museum will still allow Stuart to exhibit pieces from his collection in the museum when it opens. To make things better, it will also loan some of its collection to Stuart for the forthcoming museum.

“This is a top-of-the-world moment for me,” Stuart said. “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,” he added.

Featured Image by Christopher Victorio/Shutterstock