October 30, 2013
Re-posted from the USC Libraries’ Libwire
In the past year, archivists at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries cataloged 95 collections that document the lives of many pioneering figures in the struggle for LGBTQ equality. Thanks to the NHPRC-supported project, researchers can now access a number of previously hidden archival collections, including A Different Light Bookstore Records, the Antonio Reyes Papers, the Esther Herbert Papers and Photographs, Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE), and the Molly McKay & Davina Kotulski Scrapbooks.
In addition to the 59 collections previously processed through this project, ONE Archivists recently processed 36 additional collections shedding light on early activist organizations like Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE), which dates back to 1966 and inspired later organizations like ACT UP and the Gay Liberation Front. PRIDE organized demonstrations following the 1967 LAPD raid on the Black Cat Tavern.
The newly processed collections also shed light on the lives of important LGBTQ activists, artists, and scholars. The Esther Herbert Papers and Photographs include scrapbooks and weekly correspondence between four lesbian friends who all served in the Women’s Army Corps during WWII. The Tony Reyes papers document the career and personal life of the Latino dancer and entertainer who was also a founding member of ONE, the oldest operating gay organization in the US. Also included in the collections are a number of photographs, scrapbooks, and mementos from early gay and lesbian weddings.
See the complete list of newly processed collections below, as well as selected photographs of early LGBTQ activists.
Esther Herbert and friends from the Women’s Army Corps relaxing at Lake Arrowhead in 1944. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
Antonio Reyes with Dale Jennings, Chuck Rowland, and W. Dorr Legg from the early days of ONE Incorporated in the 1950s. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
February 1967 PRIDE Newsletter discussing the Black Cat Raid and announcing the planned demonstration. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
The office of Inaczej, one of Poland’s first gay magazines, in 1994 from the Shades of Red and Pink (Douglas Conrad) collection. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
Finding aids for the newly processed collections are available online:
- A Different Light Bookstore Records
- Al P. Busendorfer Papers
- Tony Reyes Papers
- Naked Boys Singing Records
- Carol Waymire Papers
- Charles W. Gossett Papers
- David Tierney Alternative Comics
- Esther Herbert and Marvyl Doyle Papers and Photographs
- Falcon Studios Still Images Collection
- George Raya Papers
- Harry D. Arends Collection
- Ivy Theatre Records
- Jill A. Mendelsohn Papers
- Marjorie Rushforth Papers
- Merrit Moore Thompson Papers
- LGBTQ Manuscripts Collection
- Molly McKay & Davina Kotulski scrapbooks (digital)
- New Alliance of Gay Equality (NEW AGE) Records
- Paul Serchia Papers
- Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE) Records
- Philip Cary Jones Papers
- Richard Silverthorn Papers
- Rick Herold Collection
- Robert Basker Papers
- Ron Emler Photographs
- San Francisco Unified School District’s Family Diversity
- Curriculum Resolution Records
- Shades of Red and Pink (Douglas Conrad) Collection
- Shane Que Hee Collection
- Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Records
- Steven Reigns Papers
- Sunny Bak Photography Collection
- Suzi Nash Collection
- Wil Kinsley Collection
