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New Smithsonian museum aids Baylor’s preservation of black gospel recordings

One professor’s quest to preserve historic black gospel music earned the attention of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Smithsonian’s recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., features a permanent exhibit, Musical Crossroads, on African-American musical history. It includes materials from a project at Baylor University, a Christian school in Waco, Texas, to save recordings from the “golden age” of American black gospel music.

An interactive display featuring “The Old Ship of Zion,” one of the key recordings of Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, is among the highlights of the exhibit.