Belmont University to House Johnny Cash’s Personal Archives

A collection of late Country Music Hall of Famer Johnny Cash’s personal archives is set to have a permanent home at Nashville’s Belmont University.

A partnership among the Cash family, the John R. Cash Revocable Trust and Belmont University allows the collection to serve as the anchor for the new Johnny Cash Learning Center at Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business’s upcoming Music Row-located building. The collection is from the late singer-songwriter’s children, Rosanne Cash, Kathy Cash Tittle, Cindy Cash, Tara Cash Schwoebel and John Carter Cash. The $8.6 million acquisition was made possible in part through the support of Scott and Sandi Borchetta, Mike and Linda Curb and the Harper House Music Foundation.

The archives collection includes some of Cash’s personal correspondence with fellow artists, family and other public figures, as well as personal notes, photographs, scrapbooks, handwritten lyrics, cassette tapes and more. Belmont also begin a digitization process to catalog and preserve the collection prior to the opening of the Cash Learning Center. That digitization effort will be spearheaded by Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel, who will serve as director of the Johnny Cash Learning Center, in partnership with Belmont University Special Collections.

The Johnny Cash Learning Center will also include space for archival research, digital and physical exhibits, and educational programming integrated into Belmont’s curriculum. The space will also include a secure reading room to allow appointment-based access for researchers, while an open digital collection allow the archival materials to be available to the public online.

“We are thrilled that our father’s archive has found a home at Belmont University. An enormous body of his work, including unpublished writings, will now be available for scholars and students to more intimately connect with the foundational elements of his artistry for years to come,” the Cash family said in a statement.

“Johnny Cash was one of the greatest storytellers in American music,” added Belmont University President Greg Jones. “At Belmont, his archives will bring those stories to life for students across every discipline. We are humbled that the Cash family chose us as the permanent home for this legacy, and deeply grateful to everyone who made it possible.”

“There is no parallel for what this means for our students and scholars,” said Brittany Schaffer, Dean, Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. “Direct access to the personal papers and lyrics of one of the most important artists in American history is something most institutions can only dream of. The Johnny Cash Learning Center will be a place where his story is not just preserved but experienced.”

“As Trustee, it’s been an honor and pleasure to work with the family to find a home for this archive,” said Catherine Sullivan of the John R. Cash Revocable Trust. “As a lifelong resident of Nashville, Tennessee, I’m proud to know that generations of Belmont students will be able to study Johnny’s legacy.”