Jack White is one of the biggest fans of historical music in the world, and it's a cause he's not afraid to put his money behind. His newest, and biggest, donation was a $200,000 gift to the National Recording Preservation Foundation. White is the first to donate to the cause and he hopes more will follow suit. White sits on the foundation's board along with fellow Americana devotee T-Bone Burnett.
There are several purposes to the Recording Preservation Foundation, the most immediate of which is the conversion of the Library of Congress's collection of 8-tracks and LPs to digital format. The second purpose is to provide training for others to assist in converting collections outside of the Library of Congress into digital.
"Here we have a whole nation of cultural heritage in recorded sound [and] a lot of it is in precarious shape," said Gerald Seligman, Executive Director of the Preservation Foundation. "Some was recorded on very fragile media - like old cylinders, acetates, reel-to-reel tapes - and it's turning into shards."
White has long expressed his interest in the resurgent vinyl album market. His record label, Third Man Records, specializes in releasing the format, even allowing bands to record live performances directly to vinyl while playing on the label's house stage. He's also released archival records from more obscure blues icons such as Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and The Mississippi Sheiks to introduce them to a new generation. He served as the official Ambassador for Record Store Day 2013.
White first came to prominence as the guitarist and vocalist for The White Stripes, a rock band that owes much of its sound to the blues.
