Preservation of the Country Music Foundation Fabry Collection

FAIN: PG-52093-13

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (Nashville, TN 37203-4206)
Lee Boulie (Project Director: May 2012 to September 2014)

The purchase of archival quality rehousing supplies for the 6,190 large-format still image portraits retained in the Fabry collection that document approximately 600 country music artists and changes in their instruments and costumes from the 1940s to 1960s. The Fabry photographs capture the development of artists over time, revealing and documenting cultural changes in make-up, hairstyles, and positioning indicative of the powerful marketing and promotional tools typical of the entertainment industry. The images provide a glimpse into major celebrities such as Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Roy Orbison, as well as lesser-known artists. The corpus is used in research, education, publications, and documentaries.

The Country Music Foundation, Inc. requests a Preservation Assistance Grant to fund the purchase of preservation supplies needed to rehouse a collection of large format negatives in the photo collection. The Fabry Collection is a collection of images taken by photographer Walden S. Fabry, who ran a photo studio in Nashville that catered to country music artists during the late 1940s through the early 1960s.