Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection
name: label: Collector
content: McCormick, Mack
label: Musician
content: Badeaux, Ed, 1926-2015
label: Musician
content: Chenier, Clifton, 1925-1987
label: Musician
content: Cotten, Elizabeth (1893-1987)
label: Musician
content: Estes, Sleepy John, 1899-1977
label: Musician
content: Hopkins, Lightnin', 1912-1982
label: Musician
content: House, Son
label: Musician
content: Howling Wolf
label: Musician
content: James, Harry
label: Musician
content: Jefferson, Blind Lemon, 1897-1929
label: Musician
content: Johnson, Robert, 1911-1938
label: Musician
content: Leadbelly, 1885-1949
label: Musician
content: Lipscomb, Mance, 1895-1976
label: Musician
content: Muddy Waters, 1915-1983
label: Historian
content: Oliver, Paul, 1927-2017
label: Musician
content: Rinzler, Ralph
label: Musician
content: Shaw, Robert, 1908 August 9-1985
label: Singer
content: Spivey, Victoria
label: Producer
content: Strachwitz, Chris
label: Musician
content: Thomas, Henry, 1874-1952
label: Musician
content: Wallace, Sippie
place: label: Place
content: United States -- Race relations
label: Place
content: Delta (Miss.)
label: Place
content: Sugarland Prison (Tex.)
label: Place
content: Greenwood (Miss.)
label: Place
content: Robinsonville (Miss.)
label: Place
content: Dallas (Tex.)
label: Place
content: Houston (Tex.)
label: Place
content: San Antonio (Tex.)
label: Place
content: Tunica (La.)
label: Place
content: Texarkana (Tex.)
label: Place
content: Galveston (Texas)
topic: label: Occupation
content: African American musicians
label: Topic
content: Drafts (documents)
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music)
label: Topic
content: Blues musicians
label: Topic
content: Photographs
label: Topic
content: Postcards -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: telephone -- Directories
label: Topic
content: Plays
label: Topic
content: African American music -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Sharecropping
label: Topic
content: Plantations
label: Topic
content: Zydeco music
label: Topic
content: Commercial recordings
label: Topic
content: Piano music (Barrelhouse)
label: Topic
content: Genealogy
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Texas
label: Topic
content: Songsters
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- Delta (Miss. : Region)
label: Topic
content: Rodeos -- United States
label: Topic
content: Prisons -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: Festival of American Folklife -- History
label: Topic
content: Festival of American Folklife -- Planning
label: Topic
content: Street scenes
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- Texas.
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Folklore
label: Topic
content: American South
label: Topic
content: African American -- Social life and customs
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- Mississippi.
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- Alabama.
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- New Orleans (La.)
label: Topic
content: Conjunto music
label: Topic
content: Jazz -- 20th century -- United States
label: Topic
content: Folk music -- United States
label: Topic
content: Ethnomusicology -- History
label: Topic
content: Sound recordings
label: Topic
content: Sound recording and reproduction
label: Topic
content: Tejano music
label: Topic
content: Transcripts
label: Topic
content: Folklorists
label: Topic
content: Zydeco musicians
label: Topic
content: Musicians, Cajun
label: Topic
content: Folk music -- United States -- History and criticism.
label: Topic
content: Music -- History and criticism
label: Topic
content: Festival of American Folklife
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Alabama -- Music
label: Topic
content: Guitar -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Guitar music
label: Topic
content: Guitarists
label: Topic
content: Country musicians
label: Topic
content: Sound recording executives and producers -- United States -- Biography.
label: Topic
content: Sound recording industry
label: Topic
content: Blues (Music) -- Southern States.
label: Topic
content: Blues musicians -- United States -- Interviews.
label: Topic
content: Hawaiian guitar
label: Topic
content: Hawaiian guitar music
label: Topic
content: African American farmers
label: Topic
content: Sharecroppers
label: Topic
content: Labor -- Southern states -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: manuscripts -- Editing
label: Topic
content: African Americans -- Songs and music
label: Topic
content: Sound recordings -- Album covers
label: Topic
content: African American prisoners
label: Topic
content: Crafts
label: Topic
content: Museum outreach programs
label: Topic
content: Folk music -- New Orleans (La.)
label: Topic
content: Black people -- Race identity
label: Topic
content: Race discrimination -- United States
label: Topic
content: Sound recordings -- Collectors and collecting
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Collection donated by Susannah Nix to the Archives Center in 2019.
creator: label: Collector
content: McCormick, Mack
culture: label: Culture
content: African Americans -- Mississippi
label: Culture
content: Arkansas
setName: label: See more items in
content: Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Field notes, manuscripts, photographs, booking contracts, correspondence, personal papers, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, interviews, and other research materials primarily relating to the history of American blues music.  Collection documents the lives of significant blues musicians Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Mance Lipscomb; insight into the life, writings, and research practices of Robert "Mack" McCormick; and the business side of recording and selling the blues.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Robert Burton "Mack" McCormick (August 3, 1930-November 18, 2015) was a self-taught folklorist who spent a lifetime researching, collecting, and writing about vernacular music in the United States. Most of his work focused on the blues and other musical traditions of Black, brown, and white communities living throughout Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. After experiencing a difficult, transient childhood and eventually dropping out of high school, McCormick settled in Houston, Texas and began to work a series of odd jobs while relentlessly pursuing his goal of becoming a successful writer. Although researching and writing about music came to occupy most of his time, he also pursued passions as a screenwriter and novelist. The volume of historical research and personal interviews he conducted from the 1950s through the early 1970s is remarkable, and his published writings during this period about music and the musicians he doggedly studied were lauded by his peers as among the best in the field. Along the way he worked for a time as a manager for the careers of the Texas songsters Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, and briefly ran his own record label. He made hundreds of hours of field recordings with musicians living throughout the South.  He collaborated with colleagues such as Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records, and Paul Oliver, with whom McCormick spent over a decade researching and writing a manuscript on the history of Texas Blues. Beginning in the late 1960s, he was contracted by the Smithsonian Institution as a field worker for its annual Festival of American Folklife, and around the same time began researching the life of blues legend Robert Johnson for a manuscript that McCormick wrote and re-wrote but failed to publish in his lifetime.

McCormick's research, along with his personal archive, became the stuff of legend among fellow blues researchers and enthusiasts, particularly after his publishing output dwindled in the 1970s. He lived with a bipolar disorder that drew him into bouts of depression and paranoia. He came to distrust many of those colleagues working most closely with him, and sometimes shared untrue information to throw them off the trail of his research discoveries. He also "borrowed" heirloom photographs from the family members and descendants of blues artists and, in several cases documented in this collection, he refused to return them. Overcome with challenges that lay both within and without his control, he came to describe the massive archive in his Houston, Texas home as "the monster," and spent his final decades attempting with little success to publish his writings.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 60 Cubic feet (172 boxes, 9 map folders)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1858-2015, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1485
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Business cards
label: Type
content: Compact discs
label: Type
content: Contracts
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Folklore
label: Type
content: Newspaper clippings
label: Type
content: Posters
label: Type
content: Road maps
label: Type
content: Television scripts
label: Type
content: Ephemera
label: Type
content: Black-and-white negatives
label: Type
content: Contact sheets
label: Type
content: Color slides
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Family papers
label: Type
content: Resumes
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Journals (periodicals)
label: Type
content: Financial records
label: Type
content: Audio cassettes
label: Type
content: Manuscripts
label: Type
content: Playbills
label: Type
content: Field recordings
label: Type
content: Writings
label: Type
content: Transcripts
label: Type
content: Manuscripts for publication
label: Type
content: Color negatives
label: Type
content: Negatives
label: Type
content: Articles
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection is arranged into fifteen series.


Series 1: Photographic Negatives, Photographs and Slides, 1959-1998, 2003, undated

Subseries 1.1: Photographic Negatives and Contact Sheets, 1967-1977, undated

Subseries 1.2: Photographs, 1959-1998, 2003, undated

Subseries 1.3: Photographs, Texas Blues (TB), 1961-1964, undated 

Subseries 1.4: Photographic Slides, 1964-1977, undated

Subseries 1.5: Negative and Photograph Indices and Assorted Material, 1963-1975

Series 2: Personal Papers, 1937-2015, undated

Subseries 2.1: Biographical Information, 1945-2003, undated

Subseries 2.2: Correspondence, Greeting Cards, and Postcards, 1937-2010, undated

Subseries 2.3: Education, 1938-1946

Subseries 2.4: Employment Records, 1948-1961, undated

Subseries 2.5: Family Papers, 1945-1988, undated

Subseries 2.6: Press, 1960-2015, undated 

Subseries 2.7: Archive, 1972-2015, undated

Subseries 2.8: Campaign, 1959-2015, undated

Subseries 2.9: Financial Papers, 1952-2015

Subseries 2.10: Legal Papers, 1950-2015, undated

Subseries 2.11: Business Records, 1941-2006, undated

Series 3: Project Files, 1960-2003, undated

Subseries 3.1: Library of Congress, 1960-1964

Subseries 3.2: Newport Folk Festival, 1965-1969

Subseries 3.3: Hemisfair, 1968

Subseries 3.4: Smithsonian Institution, Festival of American Folklife 1966-1980, undated

Subseries 3.5: Other Blues Project, 2001-2003, undated

Series 4: Manuscripts and Writings, 1952-2015, undated

Subseries 4.1: Almost A Savage Joy, 1959-1980

Subseries 4.2: Another Fine Mess, 1981-1987, undated

Subseries 4.3: Blues: A New Look, 1965-1984, undated

Subseries 4.4: Blues Odyssey, 1971, undated

Subseries 4.5: Death and Tragedy, 1975-1980, undated

Subseries 4.6: Down in Texas Blues, undated

Subseries 4.7: Folk Songs of Men, 1952-1977, undated

Subseries 4.8: Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, 1958-1976, undated

Subseries 4.9: Henry Thomas, 1975-2002, undated

Subseries 4.10: Ira, George, Edward, and Lee, 1994, undated

Subseries 4.11: The Magic Room, 1961-1962, undated

Subseries 4.12: Origin of Blues, 1991-2004, undated

Subseries 4.13: Snake in the Belly, 1956-1957, undated

Subseries 4.14: Wiley, 1957-1984, undated

Subseries 4.15: Articles, Ideas and Drafts, 1961-2004, undated

Series 5: Artist Files, 1880-2010, undated

Series 6: Texas Blues Research, 1858-2011, undated

Subseries 6.1: Texas Blues Research, 1910-2010, undated

Subseries 6.2: Lead Files, 1962-1980, undated

Subseries 6.3: Trip Notes, 1960-1989, undated

Subseries 6.4: Song Histories, 1920-1982, undated

Subseries 6.5: Music, 1928-2011, undated

Subseries 6.6: Record Catalogs, 1963-2006, undated

Subseries 6.7: Maps, 1958-1989, undated

Series 7: Robert Johnson, 1910-2015, undated

Subseries 7.1: Research Materials, 1910-2015, undated

Subseries 7.2: Who Killed Robert Johnson Manuscript, 1955-2015, undated

Series 8: Office Files, 1938-2000, undated

Series 9: Correspondence, 1959-2015, undated

Series 10: Organizations, Groups and Buffs, 1961-2003, undated

Series 11: Festivals and Living Museums, 1960-2003, undated

Series 12: Music Journals, 1971-2006, undated

Series 13: Subject Files, 1896-2015, undated

Series 14: People Files, 1928-2014, undated

Series 15: Audio Cassette Tapes and Digital Files, 1941-2007, undated
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Karen Adjei, intern, 2020; John Benko, intern, 2019; Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, archivist, 2019; Kevin DeVries, intern, 2019; María Daniela Jiménez, archivist, 2019; Katie Kerekes, intern, 2020; Alison L. Oswald, archivist, 2019; Franklin A. Robinson Jr., archivist, 2019; Brian Quann, intern, 2020; Kai Walther, intern, 2020; supervised by Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, archivist, 2019-2020.

Photographic materials scanned by Noah Stewart, digital imaging technician, 2020. Texas blues manuscripts photographed and digitized by Sydney Pearce, intern, 2023; Capri Stevenson-Bisom, intern, 2023; and Sophie Frankel, intern, 2023; supervised by Janice Stagnitto Ellis, senior paper conservator, 2023.

Materials have been removed from public access pending investigation under the Smithsonian Institution's Ethical Returns and Shared Stewardship Policy. 

Finding aid authored by Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, María Daniela Jiménez, Alison L. Oswald, and Franklin A. Robinson Jr. with supplemental biographical and historical information contributed by Craig Orr, archivist, 2019; John Troutman, NMAH music curator, 2020; and Tony Scherman, author, music historian, and journalist, 2020 revised in 2023.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Photographic materials in Series 1 were scanned in 2020.

Documents relating to the Texas blues in Series 6 were photographed and digitized in 2023.

In addition, materials in the collection were digitized for the National Museum of American History's 2023-2025 exhibit Treasures and Trouble: Looking Inside a Legendary Blues Archive; for Smithsonian Books' 2023 publication, Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey; and Smithsonian Folkways' 2023 release, Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958-1971.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Business cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Compact discs
label: Genre/Form
content: Contracts
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence
label: Genre/Form
content: Folklore
label: Genre/Form
content: Newspaper clippings
label: Genre/Form
content: Posters
label: Genre/Form
content: Road maps -- United States
label: Genre/Form
content: Television scripts
label: Genre/Form
content: Ephemera -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Black-and-white negatives
label: Genre/Form
content: Contact sheets -- 20th cenury
label: Genre/Form
content: Color slides -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Family papers -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Resumes
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Journals (periodicals) -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Financial records -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Audio cassettes -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Manuscripts -- Music -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Playbills
label: Genre/Form
content: Field recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Writings -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Transcripts -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Manuscripts for publication
label: Genre/Form
content: Manuscripts -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Color negatives
label: Genre/Form
content: Negatives -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Articles -- 20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection documents the life, writings, research practices, and business activities of blues scholar Robert "Mack" Burton McCormick who came to serve as a leading authority on the genre. Personal papers include diaries, curriculum vitae, biographical sketches, school papers, employment documents, correspondence, financial records, and an interview transcript. McCormick's writings consist of published magazine and journal articles, plays, essays, television scripts, short stories, and album liner notes. There are complete unpublished manuscripts, drafts with notes and research materials, and ideas for future work. McCormick's research practices and subjects of interest are documented in correspondence, field notes, annotated maps, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, city directories, interviews, photographic prints, negatives, slides, and contact sheets.  American blues, Texas blues, and the music of significant blues artists, who McCormick served as an agent and manager for, dominated his extensive research efforts. In addition, the collection documents the recording, distribution and sale, and identification of consumer markets for American music in correspondence, contracts, agreements, music journals, publicity and promotional materials, music manuscripts, and interviews.  

Throughout the collection preservation measures were performed to ensure long term use of the materials. Newspaper clippings were photocopied, and the originals were discarded. Audio cassette tapes have been reformatted and the digital copies will soon be available for research use.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution


W. C. Handy Collection, NMAH.AC.0132

Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 3, African American Music, NMAH.AC.0300

Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, Series 16: Country, Western, and Folk Music, NMAH.AC.0300

Duke Ellington Collection, NMAH.AC.0301

Frank Driggs Collection of Duke Ellington Photographic Reference Prints, NMAH.AC.0389

Program in African American Culture Collection, NMAH.AC.0408

Ruth Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, NMAH.AC.0415

Alan Strauber Photoprints, 1990-1994, 1999, NMAH.AC.0517

Jonas Bernholm Rhythm and Blues Collection, NMAH.AC.0551

Ray McKinley Music and Ephemera, NMAH.AC.0635

Bluestime Power Hour Videotapes, NMAH.AC.0657

Edward and Gaye Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, NMAH.AC.0704

Bill Holman Collection, NMAH.AC.0733

Andrew Homzy Collection of Duke Ellington Stock Arrangements, NMAH.AC.0740

Harry Warren Papers, NMAH.AC.0750

Benny Carter Collection, NMAH.AC.0757

W. Royal Stokes Collection of Music Photoprints and Interviews, NMAH.AC.0766

Fletcher and Horace Henderson Collection, NMAH.AC.0797

Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program Collection, NMAH.AC.0808

William Russo Music and Personal Papers, NMAH.AC.0845

Milt Gabler Papers, NMAH.AC.0849

Leonard and Mary Gaskin Papers, NMAH.AC.0900

Bobby Tucker Papers, NMAH.AC.1141

Floyd Levin Jazz Reference Collection, NMAH.AC1222

Duncan Schiedt Jazz Collection, NMAH.AC1323

Maceo Jefferson Papers, NMAH.AC1370

Jazz and Big Band Collection, 1927-1966, NMAH.AC.1388

Nick Reynolds Kingston Trio Papers, NMAH.AC.1472

McIntire Family Hawaiian Entertainers Collection, NMAH.AC.1511

Native Peoples Musicians and Music Collection, NMAH.AC.1512

Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Arhoolie Business Records and Audio Recordings, 1960-2016, CFCH.ARHO

Moses and Frances Asch Collection, 1926-1986, CFCH.ASCH

CFCH Audiovisual Projects, 2011-2018, CFCH.AVPR

Diana Davies Photographs, 1963-1969, CFCH.DAVIE

Frederic Ramsey Audio Recordings, 1945-1959, CFCH.RAMS

Ralph Rinzler Papers and Audio Recordings, 1950-1994, CFCH.RINZ

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1968 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1968 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1969 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1969 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1970 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1970 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1972 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1972 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1973 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1973 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1974 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1974

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1975 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1975

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1976 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1976

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1983 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1983

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1985 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1985

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1987 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1987

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1988 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1988

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1989 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1989 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1991 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1991 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1996 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1996

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 1997 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.1997 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Records: 2011 Festival of American Folklife, CFCH.SFF.2011 

Smithsonian Institution

Division of Performing Arts Records, 1966-1979, Accession T90055  

Office of Public Affairs, Biographical Files, 1963-1988, Record Unit 420, SIA.FARU0420 

National Museum of American History, Department of Public Programs, 1968-1992, Record Unit 584, SIA.FARU0584

Smithsonian Productions, 1967-2000, undated, SIA.FA09-055
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: National Museum of American History's Division of Culture and the Arts


Artifacts acquired as part of the collection include:


Washburn style G guitar, serial number 46472, Accession number 2019.0234.01.


Set of quills (or panpipes) made and played by blues artist Joe Patterson. Accession number 2019.0234.02.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections


Audio recordings acquired as part of the collection are listed in The Guide to the Mack McCormick Audio Tapes Collection prepared by Jeff Place, 2020-2022.