Preserving Music History: UM Blues Archive Celebrates 40 Years

Housed in the J.D. Williams Library, the archive is celebrating 40 years of collecting stories, voices, memorabilia and images that define the genre often defined as "the people's music."

Born from struggle and resilience, the genre has threaded its style into countless others to become one of the nation's most influential.

"Sometimes people have this misconception that blues is all sad music," said Greg Johnson, head of the Department of Archives and Special Collections. "The blues is so important to much of the popular music people listen to today.

"Jimmie Rodgers, from Meridian, Mississippi, is known as the 'Father of Country Music' and he learned to play from blues musicians and many of his songs followed a blues structure."

The exact birthplace of the blues is a subject for debate. But given Mississippi's history of musicians such as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf, and the growing number of Mississippi Blues Trail markers statewide, it's clear that blues is woven throughout the state's DNA.

The Blues Archive is one of the largest resources of its kind in the world, and its holdings and staff have served as an anchor to blues education since 1984. Luminaries such as Grammy- and Oscar-winning composer Quincy Jones visited the archive while planning to film "The Color Purple," and archive staff members helped Johnnie Billington create the curriculum that launched the Delta Blues Education Program.

"The blues has clearly come of age," said Bill Ferris, archive founder and founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. 

"It is no longer an isolated musical form that you travel to the Mississippi Delta to hear." 

An emeritus professor of history and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Ferris led efforts that secured the archive's foundational collections in 1982-83, when B.B. King donated some 10,000 sound recordings and Ole Miss purchased Living Blues magazine.

Ferris's vision to create an international repository of blues history resulted from his struggle to find articles and verified documents for his research, he said. 

"Before I went to teach at Jackson State and then at Yale, I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation, 'Black Folklore from the Mississippi Delta,' at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969," he said. "At that time, there were five or 10 books on the blues, many of which were written in England by Paul Oliver. 

"When I proposed research projects and requested funding, people would often respond, 'But there is nothing written on this subject. How can you do serious research on it?' which really upset me." 

The Mississippi native and a small founding team worked diligently to create a resource that solves that issue, promoting a greater appreciation of the far-reaching impact of blues in the U.S. and beyond.

"The fruit of the team's vision and the support so many people gave us over the years is what we see today in the Blues Archive, which is an internationally acclaimed center for blues research," Ferris said. 

From exclusive performance footage to the one-of-a-kind clothing worn by blues musicians, the archive has been a fountain of knowledge for authors, filmmakers, researchers, historians, musicians and the public for four decades.

The archive's Trumpet Records Collection includes all the record label's contracts, ledgers and business files. The access to such behind-the-scenes documents is something that has attracted the interest of business and law researchers.

The Mississippi-based music label represented popular blues singers such as Elmore James, Jerry "Boogie" McCain and Sonny Boy Williamson.

"We also have all of Trumpet Record's master recordings," Johnson said. "Those include recordings that were never released, like alternate takes.

"The company determined which version to release, but that doesn't mean the other ones are bad. Archive visitors may find them just as good or hear something they like even better."

Other collections illustrate how the blues resonated with a wide audience through items such as letters to "Highway 61," an award-winning blues radio program produced by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, and a Memphis woman's 1967 scrapbook. She had written letters requesting blues and jazz artists to wish her husband a happy birthday and received responses from music legends such as Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong.

The university's growing hub of blues history is helping amplify important stories, said Bobby Rush, an award-winning blues artist who lives in Jackson.

"A big part of the Blues Archive is helping people see what the blues is, how it's influenced other music and where it comes from," he said. "(Ferris') work at the Blues Archive also appeals to audiences that maybe weren't listening before."

In a move to improve accessibility around the world, the archive's staff plans to create a more interactive experience for online users and to digitize virtually all its noncommercial audio and video materials, thanks to a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Though the archive's contents are usually kept in a private area and retrieved upon request, an anniversary exhibition titled "Soul & Spirit: 40 Years of Preserving the Blues" offers a closer look at the diverse repository.

Visitors can listen to rare records on the archive's antique Victor phonograph, read a letter that then-Sen. Barack Obama wrote to Living Blues magazine, marvel at an original dress worn by the "Mother of Beale Street" and view blues-related books and letters.

"Most people don't get the opportunity to see an original Robert Johnson recording or an original Charlie Patton recording, but in an archive like ours, they can come here and see these things," Johnson said.

"It's important to know about Mississippi's and America's cultural heritage, and the blues is right at the core of that."

The exhibition is free and open to the public 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. It is displayed in the Department of Special Collections and Archives on the top floor of the library.

This material includes work supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission under grant no. ED-104677-23.

Top: Greg Johnson, head of special collections and professor in the UM Libraries, curated the Blues Archive 40th anniversary exhibition at the J.D. Williams Library. A musician and blues scholar, Johnson is passionate about uncovering and sharing the influence the blues has had on an array of music genres. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

See more photos from the Blues Archive's 40th anniversary exhibit