Topic: Status of Mack McCormicks research/collection/monster as he called it

[tinpanallygurl]

So has anyone heard about the status of his research and collection?  Has anyone even attempted to contact his daughter?  There is no telling if the reception will be warm or not.  That might be dependent on the terms and resources available to any proposed researcher/s.  Just hoping someone has an update.  Thanks.

[Bunker Hill]

McCormick's daughter, Mary Lelia Badeaux McCormick, died from breast cancer age 70 on November 14, 2004. The next of kin, after Mac, was daughter Susannah Nix. From memory they were all Houston residents with large families.

Not much use I know, but good hunting.

Alan Balfour - Southampton UK

[Blues Vintage]

?We haven?t really gotten that far?, ?We?ll be doing something with it, but we?re not ready to say what.?

I think that's the last thing she said (Observer, nov. 2015). Alan Govenar will publish a book (based on Mack's and Paul Oliver's research) next year.

[Gilgamesh]

Mary was his wife, not daughter. She pre-deceased Mack.

As far as I've heard, the writer Michael Hall is the executor of the estate.

Alan Govenar has been quoted as saying that the Oliver-McCormick "Texas Blues" will be published. No word on if "Biography of a Phantom" will be published.

[banjochris]

Some good news on this front -- on The Real Blues Forum on Facebook, Mary Katherine Aldin posted this query back in June:

Quills question: at the time of his death, Mac McCormick owned the last set of quills ever made by Joe Patterson, made shortly before his death in the asylum. Does anyone know what happened to those quills? Has any of McCormick's estate been put up for sale? Since it's not a rare 78 or anything, it may be moldering in a box somewhere, but I thought I'd ask.


and Susannah Nix, Mack McCormick's daughter, posted this today:
Susannah Nix Sorry that I'm just now seeing this, but I wanted everyone to know that Joe Patterson's quills are safe and sound. They're in a climate-controlled storage space (that is not in Mexico), along with the rest of my father's papers, photos, tapes, memorabilia, etc. It took us most of a year to go through the entire house and make sure we'd found everything that needed to be saved. Most of the 78s and LPs were sold to collectors. The estate sale was only for the furniture, housewares, and other assorted items. We're currently in negotiations to find the best home(s) for the contents of the archive. As you may imagine, there are a lot of complicated decisions to be made, and I can't really get into specifics until the details have been ironed out.

Very glad to hear this --
Chris

[Suzy T]

Any update on this?  Has Mack's "monster" found a home yet?

[Blues Vintage]

Don't know about that but apparently a documentary about Mack is in the pipeline.



"This is a short excerpt of a much longer interview that I did of my dear friend, legendary musicologist and cultural historian, Mack McMormick, on December 23, 2006.  This interview excerpt was first shown publicly at the Museum of Regional History in Texarkana, Texas on March 31, 2018.  Very few video interviews of Mack McCormick are known to exist, so any interview video footage of Mack McCormick is precious.  I am fortunate to have enough raw video and audio footage of Mack to easily accommodate the release an entire documentary about him.  I hope to release such a documentary some day.  Anyone who is interested in American music should know about Mack McCormick and his work.  If you are someone who has video or audio footage of Mack McCormick, please let me know at nonjohn@yahoo.com"

[jostber]

A substantial part of his research of Texas blues should also be available in this upcoming book from his original work with Paul Oliver:

The Blues Come toTexas

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623496388/the-blues-come-to-texas/

[DavidCrosbie]

A substantial part of his research of Texas blues should also be available in this upcoming book from his original work with Paul Oliver:

The Blues Come toTexas

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623496388/the-blues-come-to-texas/

Yes and no. As far as i can tell, the book shows us everything he made available to Paul Oliver while they were still collaborating, but none of his more recent research.

[David Kaatz]

Washington Post article about Mack and the Monster
https://wapo.st/46QSCgo

[TenBrook]

Thanks for sharing the Washington Post article David. The article includes this link to the Smithsonian's 'Guide to the Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection' which seems relevant to this thread:
https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.1485

[Blues Vintage]

Guide to the Robert "Mack" McCormick Collection - revised 2023 (Smithsonian)
 
https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/NMAH.AC.1485.pdf

[annegarner]

Just a note to say that the McCormick Papers are indeed open to the public at NMAH at the Smithsonian by appointment. It is a treasure trove of material! When I viewed the collection in July of this year, some things related to the Texas Blues book (Series 6 on the collection's finding aid) were unavailable because they were being digitized, but they should be ready later this Fall if they're not already.