Historical Organizations and Archives Resources

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Public Access

ACT UP Oral History Project (HIV/AIDS; oral histories)

The ACT UP Oral History Project is an archive of 187 interviews with members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York. The project is coordinated by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman, with principal camera work by James Wentzy (and additional camerawork in California by S. Leo Chiang and Tracy Wares and in London by Souleyman Messalti.)

Digital Transgender Archive

The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. The DTA is an international collaboration among dozens of colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history.

Georgia LGBTQ Collection (Georgia State University — periodicals; HIV/AIDS; oral histories)

The LGBTQ Digital Collection is comprised of miscellaneous materials documenting the Georgia LGBTQ community. Materials in this collection represent a wide-ranging assortment of topics and events. LGBTQ materials can also be found in a variety of other including collections, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographs Collection, and the Gender and Sexuality Collection.

Gran Fury (1980s; NYPL)

Gran Fury was an artists’ collective devoted to AIDS activism through agitprop art. Named after the Plymouth automobile favored by the New York City police department, Gran Fury drew its membership from the ranks of ACT UP/NY (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York).The collection contains examples of Gran Fury’s works in the form of posters, stickers, fliers, printed ads, billboards and bus signs, as well as photograph and slide reproductions. Included also are a small amount of correspondence, textual accompaniments for artwork, copies of publications in which Gran Fury’s works appeared, a sound recording of a Gran Fury press conference, and a videotaped interview with group members.

Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project

Collection consists of oral history interviews conducted by the Milwaukee LGBT History Project with members of Milwaukee’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. The collection includes audio records and interview transcripts. Interviewees describe their coming out experiences, the Gay Liberation Movement in Milwaukee, early LGBT organizations, the impact of feminism on LGBT politics, and LGBT social activities.

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library has one of the premier collections of LGBTQ+ history in the world. These collections include the published record of both academic and popular literature, rare books, little magazines, historic newspapers, at least 100,000 volumes, and over 300 archival collections—containing hundreds of thousands of letters, manuscripts, photographs, posters, and other items.

Outhistory.org

OutHistory is a public history website that aims to generate, present, and promote high-quality evidence-based LGBTQ historical research for LGBTQ and general audiences. We also work to foster the development and growth of broad and diverse communities of people interested in learning about and producing LGBTQ histories. We are especially interested in under-represented histories and historical research that contributes to positive social change. Most but not all of the current content focuses on the United States and Canada, sometimes in larger transnational contexts.

Outspoken: Oral History from LGBTQ Pioneers

The goal of OUTSpoken: Oral History from LGBTQ Pioneers is to preserve essential history through collecting, archiving, and making widely available first-hand oral histories of LGBTQ pioneers. The activist pioneers who gave birth to the modern LGBTQ movement in the years immediately following New York’s 1969 Stonewall Rebellion are vanishing yearly, so it is with a sense of urgency that this project proceeds. Once many hundreds strong, the courageous women and men of the Stonewall generation seized the moment to create an altogether new type of radical LGBTQ political activism that was sharply distinct from the homophile movement that preceded it. It is our belief that stories of those active during this germinal period will be of particular interest to historians, students and LGBTQ people for years to come.

Outweek (1980s/90s)

OutWeek was a gay and lesbian weekly news magazine published in New York City from 1989 to 1991. During its two-year existence, OutWeek was widely considered the leading voice of AIDS activism and the initiator of a cool new sensibility in lesbian and gay journalism.

ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives

ONE Archives at the USC Libraries is the largest repository of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives houses millions of archival items including periodicals, books, films, videos, audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records, and personal papers. ONE Archives has been a part of the University of Southern California Libraries since 2010.

Rainbow History Project

Rainbow History Project’s mission is to collect, preserve and promote the history and culture of the diverse LGBTQ communities in metropolitan Washington, D.C.

UT San Antonio LGBTQ Collections

The LGBTQ Publications collection includes publications from the holdings of UTSA Libraries Special Collections, as well as the HAPPY Foundation Archives.

Library-Only Access

Independent Voices

Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

LGBT Life Full Text (EBSCO)

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LGBTQ+ Life provides indexing and abstracts for traditional academic, cultural, lifestyle and regional publications, as well as many historically significant titles. It also includes an LGBTQ+ thesaurus of nearly 9,500 terms. LGBTQ+ Life was created with the assistance of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, which holds a significant collection of archival and present content in the area of LGBTQ+ studies. The Lesbian Herstory Archives of the Lesbian Herstory Education Foundation also assisted EBSCO to further develop the collection.

LGBT Thought and Culture

LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains 150,000 pages of rare archival content, including seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera.

Popular Culture in Britain and America: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest

Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest explores the dynamic period of social, political, and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. This collection includes thousands of color images of manuscript and rare printed materials, as well as photographs, ephemera, video footage, and memorabilia from this turbulent era.