Grateful Dead Archive to Reside at Santa Cruz

It was a special day for all the Deadheads of the world…and apparently all the Banana Slugs. Yesterday morning at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium, Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart unveiled plans for a Grateful Dead Archive that will reside in the Special Collections Department at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz (home of the aforementioned ‘Nanner Slugs).

It was a special day for all the Deadheads of the world…and apparently all the Banana Slugs. Yesterday morning at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium, Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart unveiled plans for a Grateful Dead Archive that will reside in the Special Collections Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (home of the aforementioned ‘Nanner Slugs). 

The Archive, to be centered in a room in the University Library dubbed “Dead Central,” will consist of old letters, ticket stubs, rare photographs, but not-—gasp!—-live recordings. The collection will compensate for its lack of the most quintessential type of Dead memorabilia with the addition of thousands of pieces of fan-created art, including paintings, sculptures, and, according to University Special Collections director Christine Bunting, “lots of, you know, poems.”

“We are excited that The Grateful Dead Archive will now have a home at UC Santa Cruz,” said Bunting. “It will provide extraordinary opportunities for researchers and the public to examine the music of one of the most influential bands in history, as well as explore the cultural phenomenon of Deadheads–the most dedicated and celebrated fans in music. The study of popular culture has become an important focus in the academic disciplines of the arts, humanities and social sciences.”

UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal added, “The Grateful Dead Archive represents one of the most significant popular cultural collections of the 20th century; UC Santa Cruz is honored to receive this invaluable gift…The Grateful Dead and UC Santa Cruz are both highly innovative institutions–born the same year–that continue to make a major, positive impact on the world.”

Weir and the other surviving band members felt that UC Santa Cruz “seemed the coziest possible home for [the Archive],” labeling the college “a hotbed of current Deadhead culture.” From here, the band and the University hope to launch a fundraising campaign to support the massive collection—-with the hopes that they might, according to Buntin, “endow a permanent Grateful Dead archivist position.” (She failed to address, however, whether or not her department was equipped to handle the influx of thousands of tie-dyed résumés and letters of interest.)

For more information on the Archive, including instructions on how to donate money, click HERE.