The Barney Kessel Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections in May 2016 by Phyllis Kessel.

The manuscript collection contains a vast array of manuscripts and other materials spanning the length of Kessel's life and career. Materials contained in the collection range in date from the early 1920s to the mid-2010s. Content includes correspondence, business and personal documents, notes, interview transcripts, posters, promotional material, full scores, parts and arrangements, professional scores with annotations, method books, day planners, and photographs.

The audiovisual collection consists of 385 items and is illustrative of the full breadth of his musical career. The complete recordings of his radio show "Inside Jazz," which aired from 1985-1989, are included in both open reel and cassette format. Original songs and covers of jazz standards are available throughout the collection on discs, open reels, and cassettes. Among these are examples of Kessel's collaborations with Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Shelley Mann and others. The collection also includes performances by Kessel's own super group, the Great Guitars. Both VHS and cassette-based instructional courses are featured as well. This collection contains many examples of live shows from throughout Kessel's career, both in the US and in Europe. Vinyl LPs from the collection are searchable in the UMKC Libraries catalog. Cataloged Sound Recordings from the Barney Kessel Collection