The Legacy Collection or Legacy Series was a series of releases by Columbia Records (later, following a reorganization, called CBS Records) that combined LP records with books.
The Legacy Collection began in September 1960 with The American Revolution, which contained an LP and 62-page book about the American Revolutionary War.[1] Items in the series were generally on historical subjects. The series was produced by Goddard Lieberson, who started it as a way to "document important periods and events in the history of our continent".[2] When Columbia was reorganized in 1966, Legacy remained within Lieberson's remit when he took over as head of what was now called CBS Records, a division of CBS-Columbia Group.[3]
The Badmen (1963), a collection for children about outlaws on the American frontier, combines recordings of American folk music and spoken word performance with a 70-page book.[4] In 1965, Stanton Catlin and Carleton Beals shared the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for Mexico.[5] Mexico book is in Spanish and English. The record has music by Carlos Chávez; some compositions are based on Spanish songs and others attempt to reconstruct Aztec music.[6] The Irish Uprising (1966), about the Easter Rising, has a book with a foreword by Éamon de Valera and recordings of Irish ballads.[7] John Fitzgerald Kennedy ... As We Remember Him includes a book reproducing photographs from John F. Kennedy's childhood and a recording of his mother Rose Kennedy.[8] The Russian Revolution has a recording of Vladimir Lenin's voice.
| The American Revolution | 1960 (reissue) | LL 1001 | [9] | |
| The Confederacy | 1961 (reissue) | LL 1003 | ||
| The Union | 1961 | LL 1005 | ||
| First Performance—Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts | 1962 | XLP 57304XLP 57602 | ||
| The Badmen | 1963 | L2L-1011 | [10] | |
| Mexico: Its Cultural Life in Music and Art | 1964 | LL-1015LL-1016 XLP 76001 | [11] [12] | |
| The Irish Uprising 1916–1922 | 1966 | 32 B5 0001 | [13] | |
| The Russian Revolution | 32-A5-0005-1 | |||
| The Mormon Pioneers | LL 1023LS 1024 | [14] | ||
| John Fitzgerald Kennedy ... As We Remember Him | L2 L1017 |