Gary Smith was a folklore student at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s and amassed a large record collection of traditional music from various genres, including jazz, ballads, blues, Latino, country and western, and others. His house caught fire and the LP collection was damaged by the heat to the extent that album covers were lost and the outside tracks were somewhat hindered, but the albums remain listenable.
Glenn Jones, a friend of Smith’s, took on the task of salvaging the singed LPs and finding new liners for them. Years later, after Smith had moved away (or otherwise lost interest in the collection), Jones negotiated the sale of the collection to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
Source: John Wheat, Sound Archivist, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin
From the guide to the Jones (Glenn W. )-Gary Smith Collection 92-220; 96-261., [ca. 1920s-1980s], (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
