In a special donation ceremony Friday (11/30), Garth Brooks donated objects from his extensive musical career to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The Brooks collection with join those of other American music legends, including Patsy Cline, Ray Charles and Duke Ellington.
Brooks presented the museum with his first gold record and cassette he received for the 1989 album “Garth Brooks”; handwritten lyric sheets for the song, “Beaches of Cheyenne” showing his revisions, a Takamine brand guitar, which Brooks smashed during his first NBC television special, “This Is Garth Brooks,” filmed in the Dallas in September 1991; elements of a typical stage outfit, consisting of a Mo' Betta shirt, black Wrangler jeans, black elephant-skin cowboy boots, a belt and a black Stetson Tyler cowboy hat with a label on the interior brim reading “made especially for Garth Brooks.”
The museum will also collect the plaque for the special Career Award Brooks received in November by the Recording Industry Association America as the new top-selling solo artist in recorded history with 123 million albums sold.
“Garth Brooks is a pivotal figure in contemporary music and his achievements, both commercial and artistic, are remarkable,” says museum director Brent D. Glass. “We are pleased to welcome his donation to the museum’s music and entertainment collections.” A selection from the new Garth Brooks collection will be on temporary display in the museum’s “Treasures of American History” exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum beginning in January 2008.