Jeff Dunn's question about house museums dedicated to American composers
intrigued me.

On a recent visit to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, I noted house museums
enshrining Gorky, Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, and many other artists of various
disciplines.  It was a novelty to me because I couldn't remember seeing
any such thing in America.

So I tried Goggle searches for "gershwin museum" and "copland museum."
Found a Gershwin Hotel and Theater, and a couple of temporary museum
exhibitions dedicated to each composer.  No house museum of any kind.

Celebrities in this country tend to bequeath their effects to university
libraries or the Library of Congress.  (The late revered choral conductor
Robert Shaw and his surviving sons gave everything to the library at
Yale University, including his books, scores, record library, gaggle of
Grammies, batons, trademark blue rehearsal shirts, sets of concert attire,
and much more.)  That, plus the impermanence of structures here, would
seem to make house museums less popular.

Indeed, I find that the Library of Congress has a Gershwin
Collection actively supported by the composer's family and in
1998 opened a Gershwin Room to showcase its holdings (see
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9804/gershwin.html).  LOC also
houses the Copland Collection (see
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/achtml/achome.html).

I look forward to reading the insights of other list members on this
subject.

Nick Jones
Atlanta, Ga.