Delta Blues Museum - Collection

The Delta Blues Museum has a large collection of artifacts, including musical instruments, recordings, sheet music, posters, photographs, costumes, folk art, paintings, and other memorabilia. Among the highlights:

Muddy Waters Exhibit

This display features the core of the former Morganfield home, once located on Stovall Farms, just outside Clarksdale. The original home had several additional rooms but the dwelling had fallen into disrepair until this central part was saved by the House of Blues foundation and donated to the museum in 2001.
Inside, a life-size (and eerily lifelike) statue of Waters, dressed in his trademark sharp suit and holding a '50s vintage electric guitar, sits, exuding its own brand of "mojo". Plaques with information about Water's life and music are fixed to the cabin's walls; excerpts from the A&E biography of Waters play on a monitor inside. A "Muddywood" guitar, made from salvaged wood from the cabin, courtesy of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

John Lee Hooker Guitars

Another Clarksdale native and blues legend, the "Boogie Man" created his singular sound on these guitars.

B.B. King Guitar

The current "King of the Blues" has had many "Lucilles", his name for his trademark guitar ‐ this is one of them.

Big Joe Williams Guitar

A classic example of the traveling country bluesman, Williams played this customized, nine-string version of the instrument.

Big Mama Thornton

A display case is devoted to the life and career of the pioneering blues singer, the vocalist on the original versions of "Hound Dog" and "Ball and Chain".

Charlie Musselwhite

aThe piano, shoes, harmonica (signed) and other memorabilia of the harp master, longtime compadre of John Lee Hooker and Chicago blues scene veteran, are on display.aaa

Jimmy Burns

This contemporary Delta musician, one of the many who settled in Chicago, is represented by one of his earliest guitars.

Son Thomas

His much-used electric guitar and several ghoulish folk art sculptures ("Woman in Coffin", a skull) display this artist's dual interests.

Stella Guitars

Early Stella guitars (made in New Jersey by the Oscar Schmidt Company) were favored by classic Delta blues musicians like Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Skip James and a host of others.

Three Forks Sign

The original sign from one of the reputed stores/juke joints where Robert Johnson was allegedly poisoned at his last gig.

Clack Grocery Sign

This sign is from the store and train stop on old Highway 61 in Tunica County where Alan Lomax recorded Son House for the Library of Congress in 1941.