This collection of 1,206 slides is a representative selection of the Grateful Dead photography of Susana Millman. She began photographing the band in the early 1980s, and from 1985 to 1995, she had extraordinary access to concerts, backstage areas, and private occasions. These images document not only the band members and fans but also many of the staff, making her collection a fine overview of the community.

Susana Millman grew up in New York City, where she initially pursued an academic career with a PhD in Social Psychology from Columbia University. She left her studies to explore shamanism and psychedelics in the Amazon, where she met some San Francisco Deadheads, returning to Northern California with them. Her fortuitous meeting with future Grateful Dead Vault Archivist Dick Latvala in the late 1970s, combined with her growing interest in photography, led to her meeting and marrying Dennis McNally, the Dead's publicist and official biographer, in 1985. In addition to her work photographing the Grateful Dead and its satellite bands, she has a sizeable portfolio of event, location and performance photography.

2 boxes

1.5 linear ft.

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Collection open for research.