The Rainbow Family of Living Light & Rainbow Gathering papers
Scope and content
The collection is comprised of more than 100 boxes, containing flyers and handbills, correspondence, publications and newsletters, notebooks and diaries, media, planning and development materials, legal documents, press clippings, and
Dates
- 1972-.
Creator
- Beck, Garrick. (Person)
Language of Material
In English.
Restrictions on Access
Collection is currently being processed. Material must be requested 48 hours in advance.
Biographical / Historical
The Rainbow Family of Living Light (aka the Rainbow Family) is a counter-culture group established in 1970 by Garrick Beck and Barry "Plunker" Adams. In the decades since, it has grown into a loose collective of affiliated smaller groups and individuals, some nomadic. The Rainbow Family has promoted ideas that have since become commonplace, such as environmental consciousness (including energy conservation through alternative energy, organic farming and eating), alternative medicine, connections between spiritual and physical health, anti-war sentiments, and anti-consumerism. The group is perhaps best known for its yearly, primitive camping events on public lands known as Rainbow Gatherings, which are built around shared values focused on peaceful alternatives to a destructive and consumerist world. The first Rainbow Gathering was held in Strawberry Lake, Colorado in 1972. Beck's vision for the large communal gathering was inspired by the music festivals of the time, such as Woodstock, where temporary communities would operate within a defined space and time. Rainbow Gatherings are organized by consensus, and open to all who would like to attend so long as they share the community's tenants of peace, environmentalism, and non-violence. The gatherings happen annually to this day, with congregants meeting in remote forests around the world for one or more weeks at a time. The Rainbow Gathering is often cited today as an important precursor to modern day festival culture as expressed through events like Burning Man.
Extent
100 cubic feet. (100 cubic feet.)
Separated Materials
Title: Gathering sounds, field recording with the Rainbow Family
Author: Hrenak, Tenali
Format: Book
Language: English
Call number: GT4803 .H74 2023 +
Title: Gathering sounds too, field recording with the Rainbow Family
Author: Hrenak, Tenali
Format: Book
Language: English
Call number: GT4803 .H746 2023 +
- Alternative lifestyles.
- Alternative medicine.
- Counterculture.
- Energy conservation.
- Environmental health.
- Environmental protection.
- Festivals.
- Natural foods.
- Nature -- Effect of human beings on.
- Organic farming.
- Organic gardening.
- Renewable energy sources.
- Sustainable agriculture.
- Sustainable development.
- Traditional medicine.
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)