Folk hero Bob Dylan kept a secret stash of personal artifacts that includes notebooks containing song lyrics, photographs and other forms of memorabilia. The living legend's archive spans almost six decades of his career and life, and now the entire collection is making its way to Tulsa, Olka., where it will find its permanent home.
The University of Tulsa's Helmerich Center for American Research will house the extensive 6,000-item collection, which has been acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the university announced in a press release. A digital curation team currently has 1,000 items from the collection in its possession at the Hardesty Archival Center at the Helmerich Center, where the artifacts are being preserved and digitized in preparation to be made available for academic study and will also be featured in an upcoming public exhibition.
"I'm glad that my archives, which have been collected all these years, have finally found a home and are to be included with the works of Woody Guthrie and especially alongside all the valuable artifacts from the Native American Nations," the 74-year-old folk singer said in a statement. "To me it makes a lot of sense and it's a great honor."
A curator for the collection, along with additional staff and an advisory committee for the Bob Dylan Archive, will be selected soon, and plans for the public exhibit are set to be announced later this year. Fans will be able to view the collection's artifacts, which include a 1974 notebook that contains lyrics that were later recorded for Dylan's 1975 hit album "Blood on the Tracks," Dylan's 1966 wallet that holds a piece of paper with icon Johnny Cash's address and phone number, the leather jacket Dylan wore onstage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and never-released complete concert films from Dylan's 1980 performance at Massey Hall in Toronto.
The George Kaiser Family Foundation acquired the full collection for an estimated $15 to $20 million and will provide a deeper look into the study of Dylanology, according to Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor, historian and author of "Bob Dylan in America."
"It's going to start anew the way people study Dylan," Sean Wilentz said.
