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Bruce Springsteen’s Archive Is Headed to Monmouth University

Bruce Springsteen, performing in France in 1985. A center at Monmouth University will be the repository for Mr. Springsteen’s personal collection of written works, photographs, periodicals and various artifacts from his career.Credit...Michel Gagne/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

There really could be only one appropriate home for Bruce Springsteen’s archives: the Jersey Shore.

And indeed that is where they will go, through a partnership announced Tuesday with Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J. As part of the partnership, the university will establish the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, which will be the repository for Mr. Springsteen’s personal collection of written works, photographs, periodicals and various artifacts from throughout his career.

The university — just miles from Asbury Park, one of the towns where Mr. Springsteen started his musical career — said in a statement that the new center would promote the legacy of Mr. Springsteen and other giants of American music, like Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson. Its materials would also bolster curriculums at the university, including at its music business program.

“The establishment of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music celebrates and reinforces the Jersey Shore’s legacy in the history of American music, while providing a truly transformative experience for our students,” Paul R. Brown, the university’s president, said in a statement.

The university offered few other details about the collection or its plans for the new center, including any financial information about the partnership. But Mr. Springsteen’s materials will join what is already a major trove of memorabilia at Monmouth, the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection. That collection includes nearly 35,000 items — compiled in part by fans — which has been housed at Monmouth since 2011.

One of the figures involved in bringing the archives to Monmouth University was Robert Santelli, the executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, who is expected to take on a leadership role at the new center. Mr. Santelli, a Monmouth alumnus, also helped secure the special collection for the university in 2011.

The arrangement with Monmouth comes as rock-related archives have become increasingly valuable to museums, universities and other cultural institutions, which use them for scholarly study and sometimes as tourist attractions. Last year, Bob Dylan’s archives were acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation for a group of institutions in Oklahoma, including the University of Tulsa, for an estimated $15 million to $20 million.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Springsteen’s Archives: (Where Else?) In Jersey. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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