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Acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016, the Bob Dylan ArchiveĀ® consists of more than 100,000 items spanning decades.
An intimate perspective of the artistās working process can be evidenced in a vast assortment of handwritten song lyrics. Beginning with songs on the 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan, much of the material is heavily revised, annotated and often includes omitted material. Highlights include various drafts of many of Dylanās creations, along with a raft of lesser-known song lyrics and fragments.
āFor years rumor circulated among Bob Dylan enthusiasts of a legendary secret archive including notebooks that many hoped would reveal how Dylan wrote some of his most iconic songs. In this case the legend happens to be true.ā
Denver Nicks ā Time Magazine
The collection also includes essays, poems, liner notes, correspondence, autobiographical bits and philosophical musings.
Many of these are associated with Dylanās mid-1960s efforts while others trace the artistās work, changing attitudes and personal activity. Another major section of the archive contains notebooks and correspondence. Recording session reports, contracts, sheet music of Dylanās songs and scores of photographs also populate the collection.
Astoundingly, master tapes of the artistās entire musical catalog and hundreds of hours of film and video material are in the collection, as well as the film originals of Murray Lernerās Festival! (1965), D.Ā A. Pennebakerās Donāt Look Back (1967), Dylanās (with Howard Alk and Pennebaker) Eat the Document (1971), Dylan and Alkās Renaldo & Clara (1978), Martin Scorseseās Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (2006) and a host of music shorts and videos.
Following on the heels of Tulsaās relatively recent acquisition of the Woody Guthrie Collection, Bob Dylanās archive stands to make the city an essential location for conducting scholarly popular music research and generating artistic activity. This is fitting, as Guthrie was a significant early inspiration for and influence on Dylan.Ā
DylanāsĀ long and continuing artistic career strides an ever-changing American environment that touches on many disciplines, and this collection provides a rich source of material for scholars of popular music, film studies, American studies, history, sociology, political science and cultural studies. Continued biographical, literary and musical research on Dylan will depend on access to this collection by scholars from around the world, and we can anticipate the steady creation of papers, monographs, colloquia, symposia, conferences and classroom studies emanating from this collection.
The examination of āChimes of Freedomā lyrics scrawled on hotel stationery and dotted with cigarette burns. The dissection of Dylanās decision to transition from acoustic to electric. The analysis of correspondence between Dylan and beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Each of these are examples of the vast amount of information waiting to be unearthed and research waiting to be conducted.
TUās Helmerich Center for American Research, located on the grounds of Gilcrease Museum, along with the Woody Guthrie Center, have positioned Tulsa to become a focal point for scholarly inquiry into American popular music.
āAnd it is a living monument: an entrancing, immersive, take-you-by-the-lapels destination that doubles as a campus for learning and exploring.ā
Douglas Brinkley ā Vanity Fair
āOur intention is not to explain Dylan. If anything, it's to create even more questions.ā
Steven Jenkins ā director of the Bob Dylan Center
Bob Dylan CenterĀ®
116 E Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK 74103
Wednesday – Sunday: 10AM – 6PM
918.392.3353 | info@bobdylancenter.com
