Artifact of the month
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022
Song Request Signs
One concert experience that’s increased over the last decade are the song request signs that devoted fans lovingly create and bring along to shows in hopes that their favorite tunes will make it to the concert song list. Often these wishful suggestions can make for unforgettable performances.
Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022
Limited Edition Poster for the April 10, 2016, cancelled Greensboro, NC, show
Bruce Springsteen is not a performer who is known for cancelling shows. But in April, 2016, Springsteen and the E Street Band took a bold stand against North Carolina’s hateful and discriminatory “bathroom law” and stood in solidarity with the LGBT community and other Americans who opposed the new restrictive law.
Monday, Aug. 1, 2022
Springsteen Family Bible
This month’s featured item is not a rock relic, but a historic artifact that dates back several centuries. The Springsteen Family Bible was discovered at an estate sale in the winter of 2021 and donated that March to the Bruce Springsteen Archives. Sue Griffin was attending a multi-day estate sale at 3 Van Schoick Road in Middletown New Jersey. She had arrived on the last day of the sale when the price of the items had been significantly reduced and noticed a bag of books on a shelf in the library. When she viewed the contents she spotted the small Bible. Upon opening the cover she noticed several pages of birth dates and marriages listed, all with the last name of Springsteen. Sue astutely purchased the bag of books for $5.
Friday, April 1, 2022
Rare Castiles Poster
Before the E Street Band, the Bruce Springsteen Band, Steel Mill and some lesser-known bands in which Springsteen had performed, there was the Castiles. The Castiles were a Freehold-based rock and roll band that was created by rhythm guitarist and lead-singer George Theiss and included a young Bruce Springsteen on lead-guitar and vocals. They formed in 1965 and played various local coffee houses, parties, social clubs, gyms and other assorted small venues before eventually finding their way to New York City where they played at least thirty shows at the Café Wha? before playing their final show in 1968.
Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022
Bruce’s personal notebook & Black Takamine EF381C acoustic guitar
Bruce’s personal notebook featuring lyrics to Tom Joad and black Takamine EF381C acoustic guitar. Both of these items will be on display in the Woody Guthrie: People are the Song Exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum from February 18 through May 22, 2022
Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022
Bruce Springsteen Live! Exhibit
Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music and the GRAMMY Museum have announced a new traveling exhibit installation, “Bruce Springsteen Live!”. The first-ever traveling Springsteen exhibit features legendary artifacts, live performance footage, original instruments and stage costumes, exclusive interviews, concert posters and photography, and new interactive installations to immerse Springsteen fans in the band’s creative process.
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021
Dear Landlordess Photo
In 1974-1975 Bruce was living in a small rented cottage at 7 1/2 West End Ave in West Long Branch and writing songs for his breakthrough album, Born to Run. The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle tour had recently ended and the band was back in the studio, first at 914 Sound Studios with manager Mike Appel, then to the Record Plant where Jon Landau and Jimmy Iovine would join the production team and the rest is history.
Monday, Nov. 1, 2021
Adele Springsteen Scrapbooks
There have been many periodicals that document the life and career of Bruce Springsteen but among the earliest are the numerous scrapbooks created by his proud mom, Adele Springsteen, and now conserved in the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021
Springsteen Handwritten Lyrics to “All Man the Guns (For America)”
In the late 1960’s, during the Vietnam War era, Bruce Springsteen wrote the song, “All Man the Guns (For America)”. It was written about the boys who went off to war and promised to return and for their girlfriends who vowed to wait for them.
Contact
Research access to the collection is by appointment only.
Eileen Chapman 732-571-3512 echapman@springsteenarchives.org
Merchandise merchandise@springsteenarchives.org
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400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, NJ 07764, 732-571-3400