A Museum of American Music—Headlined by Bruce Springsteen—Opened in New Jersey With Instruments, Lyrics and Clothes From Rock Stars and Pop Legends

Bruce Springsteen’s ode to American musical history has opened in New Jersey. The brand-new, 32,000-square-foot Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music is filled with music memorabilia, including guitars from the Boss and the red ballcap pictured on the cover of Born in the USA.

But while the center bears Springsteen’s name, more than half of its hundreds of artifacts are related to other musical artists, reports the New York Times’ Nick Corasaniti. There’s Frank Sinatra’s tuxedo, John Coltrane’s saxophone, Joni Mitchell’s lyrics and George Clinton’s cape, to name a few. According to a statement from the center, it aimed to both preserve Springsteen’s legacy and celebrate the history and diversity of American music—the latter of which was especially important to the New Jersey rocker.

“I’m a small link in a big chain,” Springsteen tells the Times. “I’m the guy that came along and kind of picked up the flag. That’s the way it works. You run with it for a while, and you pass it on to the next guy. I think the center reflects that.”

The Springsteen Center is located on the campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch—about a mile away from the house where Springsteen wrote “Born To Run” more than 50 years ago, launching himself into the American musical pantheon. The center, which cost about $50 million, was designed by New York architecture firm Cookfox. It includes exhibition galleries, research archives, immersive interactive experiences and a performance theater.

“Each exhibit, it really keeps your attention I feel,” visitor Michael Gould Jr. tells Asbury Park Press’ Chris Jordan. “There was a lot of cool memorabilia, like the lyrics before the actual songs were written, the shirts he wore on the album covers.”

Gould Jr. and his father, Michael Gould, toured the museum on its opening day, June 13. “I feel like we need more time,” Gould told the Press. “We’ve been here over three hours and we still need more time to absorb it all.”

The center’s first floor is devoted to a wide range of musical histories, examined through themes like genre, gender, political messaging and more. There are Woody Guthrie lyrics near artifacts from anti-Vietnam War protests. There’s one of Lady Gaga’s costumes. There’s a display case full of hip-hop artifacts, like Beastie Boys merch. One of Louis Armstrong’s trumpets. One of Johnny Cash’s guitars.

“This is the most challenging room because basically we’re trying to tell the entire story of American music—an impossibility!” Bob Santelli, the center’s founding executive director, tells Artnet’s Min Chen. “A museum could barely do it, let alone a gallery, but we came up with this idea that allows you to understand the depth, complexity, and diversity of American music.”

The second floor is dedicated to Springsteen and the E Street Band, the group best-known for backing the Boss. Visitors can see a replica of Springsteen’s writing room—complete with books that inspired him and his knife collection—reports Artnet. Display cases contain the leather jacket he wore on the cover of his 1975 breakout album Born To Run, as well as the equipment he used to lay down 1982’s Nebraska.

Displayed in one of the cases is a spiral-bound notebook, open to the pages where Springsteen scrawled the lyrics of “Born in the USA.” Santelli tells PBS News’ Geoff Bennett, “Of course, fans see that as kind of Holy Grail stuff, you know?”

This repository grew out of a “fan-curated collection of memorabilia,” per PBS News. The collection was originally housed in the Asbury Park Public Library, until it outgrew the venue. Now, it has its own home.

“The Springsteen Center provides a home for Bruce Springsteen’s archives and places him in the greater story of American music,” Santelli says in the statement. “Popular music is one of America’s most enduring and respected cultural resources, and Bruce Springsteen is one of its most important artists.”