Paul Mawhinney

Paul Mawhinney

Paul Mawhinney, a music archivist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is best known for amassing the largest private record collection in history. His passion for preserving music began in the 1950s.

Mawhinney founded Record-Rama, a store and archive that housed his growing collection. Over the decades, he accumulated more than 3 million records, including 2.5 million vinyl albums and 300,000 CDs, spanning nearly every genre imaginable. His archive included rare pressings, promotional copies, and even the first flat disc ever made, dating back to the 1880s.

Mawhinney struggled to find a buyer who would preserve the collection's integrity. It was eventually acquired by a Brazilian collector.