Bob, Woody & Bruce have Archives

$15-$20 million paid.for Bob Dylan's archive

Bob Dylan Center-Tulsa-Opens in 2022

The Bob Dylan Archive® highlights the unique artistry and worldwide cultural significance of Bob Dylan. It is housed at the University of Tulsa’s Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum.

The archive was purchased by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.¹ Dylan's staff had already done a tremendous amount of work organizing the materials, which spanned from 1964 to 2012, into meticulously kept files and folders.²  

The Woody Guthrie Center® Archives  are also in Tulsa. ($3 million).³

The Bruce Springsteen archives (35,000 items) are at Monmouth University, located in West Long Branch, NJ.⁴

Not one of the Million Dollar Quartet has anything like Dylan, Guthrie or Springsteen. Elvis Presley archives are at Graceland, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has a small Johnny Cash Collection, nothing for Carl Perkins, or Jerry Lee Lewis (still rocking). No archives for Hank Williams either (but a little museum in Montgomery).

Maybe they spent that Rock ‘n’ Roll Money and didn’t have a staff or foundation to organize their stuff.

1. Bob Dylan sells treasure trove of archive material. Reuters. March 2, 2016.

2. Peet, Lisa. "Academic: Dylan archives find home in Tulsa." Library Journal, vol. 141, no. 7, 15 Apr. 2016, p. 12.

3. American folk hero Woody Guthrie gets his own museum in Tulsa. Denver Post. May 2, 2013 The archives were purchased in 2011 for $3 million by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

4. Allen, Stephen Arthur. “In Praise of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University.” AMP: American Music Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 1, 2020, pp. 82–91.