Muddy Waters’ Cabin, B.B. King’s Guitars & Rare Blues Records Found Home in This Mississippi Museum

The Delta Blues Museum, Mississippi

In the heart of the Mississippi Delta, there’s a former railroad freight depot that holds the roots of American music.

The Delta Blues Museum tells the story of sharecroppers turned legends, handmade guitars, and the raw sound that traveled from cotton fields to Chicago clubs and shaped everything from rock to hip-hop.

Muddy Waters’ Cabin

You can step inside the real cabin where Muddy Waters (born McKinley Morganfield) lived on Stovall Plantation.

Back in 1941, Alan Lomax recorded Muddy right on the front porch for the Library of Congress. Workers took the cabin apart in 1996, fixed it up, and put it back together in a special 7,000-square-foot wing added in 2012.

When you go inside, you’ll see a life-size Muddy Waters figure in a sharp suit holding an old electric guitar.

Famous Musicians Left Their Actual Instruments Here

You’ll see instruments the blues legends really played, not just copies. Check out one of B.B. King’s own “Lucille” guitars and Big Joe Williams’ unique nine-string guitar.

Don’t miss the “Muddywood” guitar that ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons made from wood he saved after a tornado hit Muddy’s cabin.

The display cases also hold Big Mama Thornton’s stage clothes and a harmonica signed by Charlie Musselwhite himself.

Rare Blues Recordings Fill The Museum’s Sound Collection

Listen to old recordings you won’t find anywhere else. The museum keeps Alan Lomax’s original 1941 recordings of Muddy Waters made right at Stovall Plantation.

You can hear John Lee Hooker’s first big hit “Boogie Chillen” from 1949 that sold more than a million copies. They’ve also saved music from Mississippi Fred McDowell, Little Milton, and other Delta musicians who helped create rock and roll.

Sound stations throughout the museum let you play these authentic blues tracks.

One Harmonica Here Might Be Cursed

In the back corner, there’s a collection of harmonicas. The brass one is said to be cursed and once belonged to a blues player who died mysteriously in 1943.

The harmonica has a visible crack on its side, and workers claim their equipment breaks and they lose their voice after touching it. Due to superstition, it’s not cleaned.

Photos Capture the Delta Blues Experience

The photography collections show what blues culture really looked like. You’ll see Panny Flautt Mayfield’s “Juke Joints: Live from the Mississippi Delta” collection that documents the local blues scene over twenty years.

The museum has displayed Dick Waterman’s photos of John Lee Hooker (limited prints are for sale in the gift shop). In 2010, they featured Michael Loyd Young’s “Blues, Booze & BBQ” photos that showed life along 150 miles of Highway 61, the famous blues highway cutting through the Delta.

They Keep DNA Samples from Blues Legends

The museum collects DNA from famous blues musicians to preserve it for future study. You can view the tools used in a small lab area.

More than 30 musicians’ DNA has been saved, with consent from the musicians or their families. This project, which started in 2010, aims to study whether musical talent might be genetically inherited.

They release findings every few months.

They Break a Guitar String Every New Year

Each New Year’s Eve, staff break a guitar string at midnight as part of a tradition.

These broken strings are displayed in the north wing, each labeled with the year it was broken.

The tradition started after John Lee Hooker’s death in 2001, and each year a different string is used, progressing from the low E to high E.

There are currently 24 strings, each in its own glass tube.

Old Blues Players Live in the Building

You’ll find a huge collection of historical materials that tell the blues story. Sid Graves (1946-2005), who ran Clarksdale’s Carnegie Public Library, started this collection in 1979.

It was so small at first that he took everything home each night to keep it safe. Now the archives include William Gottlieb’s photos from the 1930s-40s that were originally in Down Beat Magazine and the Washington Post.

They also have George Mitchell’s black and white photos of Mississippi Hill Country blues musicians from 1967.

Stand Where Robert Johnson Sold His Soul

This museum has the brick from where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil for musical talent.

It supposedly happened at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale (now marked by giant guitar signs).

This plain-looking brick is in the middle of the main hall, marked by a small sign. Famous musicians often stand on this brick before recording new music.

The brick was discovered during roadwork in 1979, and its authenticity was confirmed through old photos and dirt testing.

Information panels also tell you about Johnson’s short career – he recorded just 29 songs between 1936-1937 before mysteriously dying at age 27 in 1938.

Real Moonshine Are Hidden in Displays

Parts of a real moonshine still are incorporated into the museum displays.

Copper pipes and barrels, once used in a still that made liquor for blues clubs until it was discovered by the police in 1958, are found throughout the main exhibit.

These parts were anonymously donated to the museum in 1997, and tests have shown traces of corn mash from the 1950s still present on some pieces.

Blues Music Here Helps People Heal

The museum has a soundproof room where people undergo blues music therapy. Book a slot and feel the music influence your soul with blues sounds.

Local doctors refer patients dealing with stress, and studies have shown that many patients improve after sessions. This therapy began in 2012 and has helped over 500 people.

Visiting The Delta Blues Museum in 2025

You’ll find the museum at #1 Blues Alley Lane in Clarksdale, inside a historic train depot built in 1918 for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad.

• Open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm (with special Sunday hours during festivals)
• Your admission fee helps support all museum programs
• They’re celebrating their 46th anniversary throughout 2025 with new exhibits

You can get audio guides in six languages and catch live blues every Friday night. There’s free parking behind the building with easy access if you have trouble walking.