Thank you all!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth on Sunday and Thursday at the Shoreline! We had a lot of fun and your interest and purchases helped to support the Greatful Dead Archive. The Archive, Dead Central, is estimated  to open in the Fall off 2011. So stay tuned for future announcements! And to be sure, the announcement of a fabulous party celebrating the opening!

If you missed purchasing a Hoodie or Tee at the show, you can buy them online! Click here for our Grateful Slug merchandise. More products will be added in the near future. Remember, a portion of all sales will directly support the archive!

Grateful Slug at the Shoreline Amphitheater

“Let there be songs

 to fill the air.”

—The Grateful Dead

 “Ripple”

In 2008, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead gifted their complete archives – documenting 30 years of performing – to UCSC’s Special Collections in McHenry Library. A year later, the Dead delighted their legions of fans by announcing a full concert tour!

The lineup for this edition of the Dead will be the same one that rocked the house at Penn State last fall at the Obama benefit: The Core Four of Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, joined by guitar monster Warren Haynes and RatDog keyboard ace Jeff Chimenti (both veterans of the 2004 Dead “Wave That Flag” tour).

The Bay Tree Bookstore and the Library will be joining faithful Deadheads at their two Bay Area engagements: Sunday, May 10th, and Thursday, May 14th, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco.

To celebrate the tour and acquisition of the complete archives, the Bay Tree Bookstore and the Library will be operating a booth at both shows, explaining the archives and offering a selection of unique “Grateful Slug” merchandise. A portion of all proceeds will directly support the archives at McHenry Library. Donations to the library will also be accepted.

To find out more, visit the Archive website at the McHenry Library.

The Grateful Dead Archive

The Grateful Dead Archiv represents one of the most significant popular cultural collections of the 20th Century. It documents the Dead’s incredible creative activity and influence in contemporary music history from 1965 to 1995, including the phenomena of the Deadheads, the band’s extensive network of devoted fans, and the band’s highly unusual and successful musical business ventures.

The Archive contains original documents, clippings, media, article and other publications about the Dead and its individual members, its tours and performances,  productions, and business. Among the resources that will be invaluable for researchers are show files, programs, newsletters, posters, cover art, photographs, tickets and stickers. These artifacts document three decades of the band’s recordings and its performance of thousands of concerts. A collection of stage props, tour exhibit material, and, of course, tee-shirts gives dimension and visual impact  to the collection. An unusual  feature of the Archive will be the correspondence and art contributed over the years by supportive Deadheads and held as very important by the Dead.

The Archive, when processed, will be widely and freely accessible to fans and scholars  It will be housed on the UCSC campus, and material from it will be prominently displayed and available for listening, viewing, and research in a dedicated Grateful Dead room located in UCSC’s new and renovated McHenry Library.

It is expected to take two years to process the Archive; parts of the collections will be debuted in stages as processing progresses. Material in the Archive will be physically preserved, its content described in detail in an electronically available finding aid, and digital copies, when appropriate, will be offered for viewing and listening from a UCSC Grateful Dead web site.

From the McHenry Library