Troutman, John
Curator of Music and Musical Instruments
0000-0002-0636-6690
Troutman, John
Curator of Music and Musical Instruments
John Troutman is a curator and scholar, whose research expertise spans the cultural history of late 19th-20th century U.S. popular and vernacular music.
Positions
- Curator, National Museum of American History 2016 -
- Head, Division of Culture & the Arts, National Museum of American History 2023 -
Research Areas
- Blues (Music)
- Cajun music
- Country music
- Guitar
- Hawaiian guitar
- Popular music
- Rhythm and blues music
- Rock music
- Zydeco music
Geographic Focus
- United States Country
Background And Education
Education And Training
- Ph.D. in U.S. History, University of Texas at Austin , History 1997 - 2004
- M.A. in Federal Indian Policy, University of Arizona , American Indian Studies 1995 - 1997
- B.A. in Cultural Anthropology, Emory University , Anthropology 1991 - 1995
Professional Biography
-
John Troutman is Curator of Music and Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, and is the museum's chair of the Division of Culture & the Arts. In addition to developing exhibits, programs, and other public-facing content, he specializes in stewarding, researching, and expanding the museum's collections that document the history of the blues, country music, Hawaiian music, Cajun music, rhythm & blues, and rock & roll. His curatorial work, research and publications have been recognized by a number of organizations and outlets. In 2025 he was awarded the Smithsonian Institution's Secretary's Research Prize for his work in editing music researcher and folklorist Robert "Mack" McCormick's manuscript, Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey, which also was recognized as a New York Times' Critics Pick and led to Troutman co-curating an exhibit on McCormick's archive. He also co-produced a six-LP box set from McCormick's field recordings, now housed at and released on Smithsonian Folkways. For this project, Troutman received two 2024 GRAMMY nominations for "Best Album Notes" and "Best Historical Album," and won Living Blues Magazine's Critics Poll for the 2023 Producer of the Year/Historical Reissue. He won the Popular Culture Association's Ray and Pat Browne Best Edited Reference/ Primary Source Work Award for co-editing the exhibition catalog, Entertainment Nation.
His work prior to joining the Smithsonian Institution's staff also gained widespread recognition. His book Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934, won the Western History Association's biennial 2011 W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for a first book on any aspect of the American West. His 2016 book Kīkā Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music, won five book awards, including the Organization of American Historians' Lawrence W. Levine Award for the "Best Book in American Cultural History," the IASPM-US Woody Guthrie Award for the "most outstanding book on popular music," and the American Musicological Society's Music in American Culture Award. Troutman's essays have been featured in several anthologies, magazines, and journals.
Troutman served as a consultant on American Epic, a Robert Redford/ Jack White/ T-Bone Burnett executive-produced PBS/BBC documentary on American music, and is featured in the prize-winning Rezolution Pictures documentary, Rumble: the Indians Who Rocked the World. As a national speaker, Troutman has been interviewed on several media outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR's All Things Considered, The Today Show and CBS Sunday Morning, and has delivered invited public talks at institutions and universities throughout the country.
Troutman was raised in Dothan, Alabama. He studied anthropology at Emory University, and earned a master's degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. He earned his PhD in history from the University of Texas at Austin. A semi-professional musician on pedal steel and guitar, he contributed steel guitar to the album Grand Isle, by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, which was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for "Best Regional Roots Music Album." He has performed on stage with numerous musical luminaries including CC Adcock, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Dr. John, Willie Nelson's Band, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Ani DiFranco, and Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine).
Awards And Honors
- Grammy Award Nomination, Best Album Notes, 2024
- Secretary's Research Prize, 2024
- Grammy Award Nomination, Best Historical Album, 2024
- Woody Guthrie Award for the Most Outstanding Book on Popular Music, conferred by International Association for the Study of Popular Music, U.S. Branch, 2018
- Award for Excellence for Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music, conferred by Association for Recorded Sound Collections, 2018
- Sally and Ken Owens Award, for Best Book on the History of the Pacific West, conferred by Western History Association, 2017
- Music in American Culture Award, conferred by American Musicological Society, 2017
- Lawrence W. Levine Award for Best Book in American Cultural History, conferred by Organization of American Historians, 2017
- Dr. Ray Authement Excellence in Teaching Award, conferred by University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2014
- Resident Scholar Fellowship Recipient, School for Advanced Research, conferred by National Endowment for the Humanities, 2012
- W. Turrentine Jackson Prize, conferred by Western History Association, 2011
- Summer Stipend, conferred by National Endowment for the Humanities, 2011
- Teaching American History Grant, conferred by U.S. Department of Education, 2009
- Outstanding Academic Title , 2009
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, conferred by Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, 2008
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for the Americas, Wesleyan University, 2006
- Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, conferred by Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, 2000
- Graduate Student Fellowship, conferred by Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, 1998
Publications
Selected Publications
-
Article
- Troutman, John W. 2017. "The Steel Heard ‘Round the World: Exposing the Global Reach of Indigenous Musical Journeys with the Hawaiian Steel Guitar." Itinerario, 41, (2) 253–274. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115317000365. 2017
- Troutman, John W. 2015. "Creating Community in the Confines of "Fine Barbaric Thrill": Joseph Kekuku, a Hawaiian Manhattan, and the Indigenous Sounds of Modernity." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 14, (4) 551–561. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781415000365. 2015
- Troutman, John W. 2013. "Steelin' the Slide: Hawai'i and the Birth of the Blues Guitar." Southern Cultures, 19, (1) 26–52. https://doi.org/10.1353/scu.2013.0003. 2013
-
Blog Posting
- Troutman, John W. 2019. "Remembering Woodstock." O Say Can You See? Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Aug 16, 2019. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/woodstock. 2019
- Troutman, John W. 2018. "Musician José Feliciano shook up a baseball tradition at age 23." O Say Can You See? Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Oct 9, 2018. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/feliciano. 2018
- Troutman, John W. 2017. "Pure Cotton with a Berry on Top: The Legacies of Chuck Berry and James Cotton." O Say Can You See? Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Mar 20, 2017. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/chuck-berry-james-cotton. 2017
-
Book
- Troutman, John W. 2016. Kīkā Kila: How The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music. University of North Carolina Press. https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469627922.001.0001. 2016
- Troutman, John W. 2009. Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934. The University of Oklahoma Press. 2009
-
Chapter
- Troutman, John W. 2016. "Joe Shunatona and the United States Indian Reservation Orchestra." In Indigenous Pop: Native American music from jazz to hip hop. Berglund, Jeff, Lee, Kimberli A., and Johnson, Janis, editors. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. 2016
-
Review
- Troutman, John. 2018. [Book review] "History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s, by M. J. Rymsza-Pawlowska." The Public Historian, 40, (4), 205–207. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2018.40.4.205. 2018
Editor Of
-
Book
- McCormick, Robert. 2023. Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey, Troutman, John William, editor. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books. 2023
- Cohen, Kenneth and Troutman, John, editors. 2022. Entertainment Nation. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. 2022
Contact
Location
- National Museum of American History Department
