New York Museum Salutes the Grateful Dead

A new exhibit of Grateful Dead history and memorabilia opens on Friday at the New York Historical Society. In a building which is the oldest New York museum and which filled with the busts and pictures of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton there is a room packed with posters, rock guitars and videos of kids who are lining up to buy concert tickets and T-Shirts.

The band’s archive has donated a room full of treasures to the UC Santa Cruz.

The exhibition, which runs through July 4, just proves that if Bay Area was the beginning place of the band, the East Coast was the energizing center stated Christine Bunting who’s the head of special collections and archives at the UC Santa Cruz. She highlights the bond between the band and New York as the Grateful Dead have played 155 times in NY.

Museum crews are preparing for the opening night party featuring a Grateful Dead tribute band and wines of Santa Cruz.

The gift shop, which usually stacks books about the Founding fathers and New York history, was a totally different site as it was selling Summer of Love pillows and umbrellas having peace signs.

Debra Schmidt Bach who was responsible along with Historical curator Nina Nazionale for organizing the exhibit state that they were interested in documenting the story of the band as well as the larger picture, which involved the counter culture movements. She said that it was necessary for everyone to see the how important this history was today.

Internal documents stored show that the band had a very farsighted business practice such as allowing free taping and exchanging of live performances to build fan loyalty.

The band was one of the most successful touring bands in history until 1995 when it disbanded after the death of its leader Jerry Garcia.

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