This collection of 692 cassette tapes was created by John R. Dwork, a well-known Deadhead author, editor, and publisher. The collection primarily documents the range of recordings available to Deadheads before the advent of digital media and the Internet. The comprehensiveness of the collection and the range of sources from which it is drawn document the effort required to amass such a collection as well as the highly coveted, distributed, and comprehensive nature of the band’s music corpus. Errors in attribution and metadata, and degradation in sound quality over successive generations, attest to the difficulties in compiling a thorough and accurate tape collection. The last two boxes of recordings are interviews conducted for publication in Dupree's Diamond News or for quotation in The Deadhead's Taping Compendium.

John R. Dwork graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he founded the Hampshire College Grateful Dead Historical Society, a tape-trading and Deadhead social club that sponsored a newsletter. He went on to work with Peter Martin on Terrapin Flyer, a Deadhead newsletter, which preceded his cofounding of Dupree's Diamond News, a major Deadhead fanzine. He coedited the three-volume The Deadhead's Taping Compendium (Holt/Owl, 1998-2000) and went on to cofound Peak Experience Ltd., a concert and event promotion company.

20 boxes

16.5 linear feet

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights of the interviews are retained by the narrators or their heirs. All music by the Grateful Dead is controlled by the band or its designated licensee. For more information, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

The collection is open for research. Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance for information regarding access.