REPOSITORY:
Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies, Mars Hill University
COLLECTION TITLE:
James H. Montgomery Music Collection, 1911-2014
COLLECTION NUMBER:
00007
CREATOR:
James H. Montgomery
LANGUAGE OF MATERIAL:
Materials mostly in English with a few in French, German, and Spanish
EXTENT:
1,023 long-playing vinyl records and 1,368 compact discs
LOCATION:
These materials are located in the Southern Appalachian Archives in Renfro Library, Mars Hill University. For assistance, please call (828) 689-1262 or e-mail archives@mhu.edu.
ABSTRACT:
James Houston Montgomery (1930 - 2014) of Austin, Texas, fell in love with bluegrass music at the age of nine. While healing from polio, he discovered bluegrass music on the radio, and it became a life-long obsession. While Montgomery worked as a librarian at Vanderbilt University, the University of California--Irvine, the University of Georgia, Rutgers University, the University of Florida, and the University of Houston, he collected over 2,000 bluegrass and country LPs and CDs and kept meticulous notes on each album and song. Though he was never able to visit Mars Hill University, he knew of Bascom Lamar Lunsford's connection with the school and donated $500,000 to Mars Hill for a Regional Studies scholarship in Lunsford's honor. He also donated his personal LP and CD collection to the school after his passing in late 2014.
