Tuesday, August 20, 2024, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum celebrated the addition of the Marty Stuart Collection to the Museum's permanent holdings. Stuart's collection of more than 22,000 items is the largest private assemblage of country music artifacts in the world, joining the world's largest public collection held by the Museum.

This acquisition was made possible through the generosity of Stuart, along with a lead preservation gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation and major additional support from Loretta and Jeff Clarke.

Many items from the Marty Stuart Collection will be on display as part of the Museum’s permanent exhibition, “Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present,” which takes visitors chronologically through the history of country music. Artifacts on display rotate often and Stuart’s collection will play a key role in the exhibit’s narrative and the Museum’s educational mission.

As part of the acquisition agreement, 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.

Country music trio Chapel Hart performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” with recording artist and songwriter 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. Staples played the instrument in the film “The Last Waltz,” performing “The Weight” with the Staple Singers and the Band at the final performance by the original lineup of the rock group.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill performed “Marty & Me,” a newly written song by Gill and Stuart, playing George Jones's 1957 Martin D-28 guitar, customized with unique, mother-of-pearl inlays and Jones’s name on the fingerboard.

Grammy-winning artist Chris Stapleton performed “Why Me,” which was recorded by Johnny Cash and previously written and recorded by Kris Kristofferson. Stapleton played Cash’s Martin D-45 acoustic guitar, which previously belonged to Hank Williams and later Johnny Cash.

Marty Stuart closed the ceremony with performances of Flatt & Scruggs’s “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down" and "Flint Hill Special" with members of the Earls of Leicester.

The backing band for the event included members of the Earls of Leicester and consisted of Mike Bub (bass), Shawn Camp (acoustic guitar), Charlie Cushman (banjo), Jimmy Stewart (dobro), Johnny Warren (fiddle), and Jeff White (mandolin).

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, 50 original 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. Additionally, Stuart’s collection includes items from his own Country Music Hall of Fame career, including his expansive collection of photographs, taken by Stuart himself, which have been exhibited at museums and published in books.

Visit the Museum to see the artifacts in person: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/plan-your-visit