Museums honor guitar legend Jimi Hendrix

Barrie Wentzell Photography  /  Courtesy of Handel House Museum

Jimi Hendrix at his London apartment, 1969.

Through Nov. 10, London’s Handel House Museum (where George Frideric Handel once lived) is featuring an exhibition celebrating Hendrix’s life and musical legacy.

What’s the connection between Hendrix and the famed Baroque composer? The Handel House Museum has its administrative offices in the London apartment where Hendrix lived from 1968 until his death in 1970. Tickets are sold out for tours of the former apartment, but next door the museum is displaying a wide range of Hendrix-related artifacts, many on loan from museums and collectors around the world.

The exhibit includes the custom Gibson guitar Hendrix played at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970, handwritten song lyrics for "Stepping Stone" and "Love or Confusion," his British work permit and the black Westerner hat and Dandie Fashion-designed orange velvet jacket with floral print Hendrix made famous on stage and in filmed footage. The Handel House Museum is also sponsoring Hendrix-themed walking tours, concerts and panel discussions.

Katherine Fogden

One of Jimi Hendrix's favorite coats, displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Hendrix claimed black, Mexican and a bit of Cherokee heritage, so he’s included in an exhibition running through Jan. 2, 2011, at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Hendrix-related artifacts included in "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture" range from a leather necklace and a leather pouch to a colorful, full-length, patchwork leather coat on display for the first time.

Collection of Experience Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix wore this outfit in his final concert appearance in 1970

In Cleveland, Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (which inducted the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1992) has a permanent Hendrix exhibit featuring more than 50 artifacts.

On display are guitars, concert posters, photographs, handbills, drawings and a couch from Hendrix’s childhood home.

Among the articles of Hendrix’s clothing on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the outfit he wore at the Love and Peace Festival in Germany for what turned out to be his final concert performance on Sept. 6, 1970.

Courtesy of Harriet Baskas

Fans honor Jimi Hendrix year-round at Greenwood Memorial Park.

And as they do year-round, on the 40th anniversary of the Hendrix’s death, you can be sure many fans will make a special visit to Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, Wash. There, a tasteful but hard-to-miss memorial marks Jimi Hendrix’s gravesite.