Bruce Springsteen
Danny Clinch
Bruce Springsteen has never forgotten where he came from. The American rock icon, who has long celebrated his blue collar New Jersey roots, will be the subject of a wide-ranging exhibit at the Monmouth County Historical Association called “Springsteen: His Hometown” in Freehold, New Jersey. The exhibit will provide a “comprehensive look of how Monmouth County, NJ has been thematically woven into Bruce Springsteen’s music and art throughout his career,” according to a release announcing the show.
More than 150 items will be on display when “His Hometown” opens on Sept. 29 — it is slated to run through fall 2020 — including the original color poster from Springsteen’s Freehold-bred first band, The Castiles, a personal scrapbook made by the singer’s mother, as well as her 1943 high school yearbook and the 1801 document signed by the Revolutionary war patriot and direct ancestor John Springsteen. Springsteen was born in Freehold, and the unveiling of the show will coincide with the city’s centennial celebration.
The pieces in the exhibit will come from both the Monmouth County Historical Association and the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University.
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Ticket information is available here; proceeds from the exhibit will benefit the MCHA. “The MCHA is honored to have the opportunity to exhibit some of the most unique, and some never-before-seen, items that reflect the unparalleled career and life of Bruce Springsteen,” said Linda Bricker, president, MCHA Board of Trustees in a statement. “Springsteen remains an essential part of the fabric that comprises the deep history of Monmouth County. We would especially like to thank Eileen Chapman, Melissa Ziobro and the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music for their continued generosity and collaboration.”
The exhibit will be co-curated by Ziobro, Monmouth University’s specialist professor of Public History and MCHA director of collections Bernadette Rogoff; director of the archives Chapman and Robert Santelli, founding director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, will serve as advisors. “It’s wonderful that the MCHA, with an exquisite gallery space in the heart of Bruce Springsteen’s hometown, will be hosting an exhibit that will showcase the Archives and explore his life for a wider audience,” said Ziobro. “I am so grateful for the team that has come together to make this vision a reality.”
Check out some images from the exhibit below.
19th Century Civil War document that includes Alexander Springsteen of lineal descent to Bruce Springsteen. Mark Krajnak for MCHA