Audio Tape Collection Preservation and Digitization Project

FAIN: PW-253878-17

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (Nashville, TN 37203-4206)
Lee Boulie (Project Director: July 2016 to February 2020)
Brenda Colladay (Project Director: February 2020 to October 2022)

The assessment and digitization of 4,500 hours of audio recordings that trace the history and development of country and American vernacular music.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (CMHFM) seeks support through the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program to assess the contents of its quarter-inch audio tape collection, and to digitize and make publicly accessible 4,500 hours of rare, fragile, and valuable recordings from this collection. This audio tape digitization project builds on the Museum's successful digitization of acetate transcription discs, complementing that collection with new commercial, demo, broadcast, and performance recordings that trace the history and evolution of country and American vernacular music. This pilot project will assess the full audio tape collection of 21,632 quarter-inch reels and digitize nearly 10% of the collection for preservation and public access. The project will also make a significant selection of previously-unavailable recordings accessible for humanities research through digital access and cataloging and finding aids.