A museum displaying musical instruments, records, musical pieces and staff music dating from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s opened last month on the fourth floor of the Mitchell Memorial Library.
The Charles H. Templeton Music Museum: The Business of Music opened March 20 and displays a collection that the late Templeton, who passed away in 2000, collected over the course of 40 years, said Stephen Cunetto, the administrator of systems at Mitchell Memorial Library.
“We’ve actually had the collection in our possession since 2000,” Cunetto said.
Templeton donated the collection in 1987 to the university, and MSU displayed it at a location on Blackjack Road. The collection remained in storage at the library after Templeton’s death, but his family decided they did not want it to stay there, Mary Beth Langston, Templeton’s daughter, said.
“We as a family thought it would be a great way to share [it],” Langston said.
The library tried to find a way to display the collection by renovating an area in the library, but funds were not available for the project. Templeton’s wife donated the money after making the decision with her family, Cunetto said.
“The collection contains about 200 pieces, 12,000 recordings and 22,000 articles of sheet music,” he said. “A lot of the music dates from the ragtime era.”
About 100 pieces are displayed at one time, and the others are rotated into the showcase making the museum a fresh experience.
Cunetto said they aim to make the musuem both a visual and auditory experience for visitors.
“They’re really amazed at the collection itself and that the instruments are still in working condition,” he said.
The library is now pushing to make people more aware of the museum, locally and regionally. The Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau has been helping publicize the existence of the museum. Visitors will find that this museum has much to offer compared to other museums