LGBTQ Archives, Libraries, & Museums

Backward feelings serve as an index to the ruined state of the social world; they indicate continuities between the bad gay past and the present; and they show up the inadequacy of queer narratives of progress. Most important, they teach us that we do not know what is good for politics. It is true that the small repertoire of feelings that count as political — hope, anger, solidarity — have done a lot. But in this case a lot is not nearly enough.

—Heather Love, Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History, p. 27
Link Information
[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]: Indicates site/source with digital archive(s)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Against Equality: Queer Challenges to the Politics of Inclusion
An online archive, publishing, and arts collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Archives of Sexuality and Gender (Gale subscription)

Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives 
The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) is a non-profit organization committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of material reflecting the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex LGBTI Australians. It has over 150,000 items, constituting the largest and most significant collection of material relating to LGBT Australians and the largest collection of LGBT material in Australia, and the most prominent research center for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans* and intersex history in Australia.

Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto
The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA) collects LGBT historical records, personal papers, publications, art, photographs, posters, and artifacts. The CGLA also features exhibits throughout the archive and in the gallery.

Center for Sex and Culture Library and Archive
The collection is unique in its dedication to collecting and preserving information about sex as we have known it, do know it, and continue to learn about it, worldwide.

The Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives
The Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives is located in the Indy Pride office in Indianapolis. Many of the materials are circulates, and the library has over 8.000 individual titles, as well as LGBT publications, videos, art, and photos.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Digital Transgender Archive (College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts)
Aiming 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.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Dyke: A Quarterly
An online annotated archive of Dyke, originally published in NYC from 1975-1979.

Feminist and Lesbian Periodical Collection at the University of Oregon
The Feminist and Lesbian Periodical Collection contains 482 lesbian and feminist periodical titles including 36 Oregon titles and 31 international titles. Approximately 80 percent of the entire collection contains titles published during the 1970s.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Archives (Special Collections, Northeastern University, BOSTON)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Gay and Lesbian Collections and HIV/AIDS collections (New York Public Library)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Gender Fail
A publishing and programming initiative that seeks to encourage projects that foster an intersectional queer subjectivity.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Gender Fail Archive Project

Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives was founded in 1981 to be a depository for the records of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) individuals and organizations, and for other resources bearing upon their lives and experiences in American society. Gerber/Hart Library and Archives has since grown into being the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ circulating library with over 14,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles, and 100 archival collections.

GLBT Historical Society (San Francisco)
The GLBT Histoty Museum from the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco features art, objects, and publications from the 1940s to today. The museum also hosts events throughout the year with artists, activists, and authors.

The History Project (BOSTON)
Volunteer-driven organization aiming to preserve the history of Boston’s LGBT community.

IHLIA LGBT Heritage
IHLIA LGBT Heritage was established in 1999, and is an international archive of over 100,000 LGBT books, journals, magazines, films, documentaries, photographs, and objects.

June Mazer Lesbian Archives
The June L.  Mazer Archives is the largest major archive on the West Coast dedicated to preserving and promoting lesbian and feminist history and culture.

Kinsey Institute Library & Special Collections
The Kinsey Institute’s library and collections chronicle more than 2,000 years of human history, with publications, objects, art, and data from around the world.

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
The Leslie-Lohmann Museum has a permanent collection of 1300 objects from incredible LGBT artists including Rober Mapplethorpe, Catherine Opie, and David Hockney.

Leather Archives & Museum
The Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago is dedicated to the preservation of leather, kink, and fetish lifestyles.

Les Archives gaies du Québec
The GQI is a non-profit, community-based organization that is mandated to receive, preserve and preserve all handwritten, printed, visual, audio, and other documents that bear witness to the history of gays and lesbians in Quebec

Lesbian Herstory Archives
The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Lesbian Herstory Digital Archives

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Lesbian Poetry Archive

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]LGBT History, Digital Collaboratory
LGBTQ digital oral history is an emerging field built by dedicated activists, historians, and archivists across the web. This hub acts as a growing resource for oral histories practitioners and the public.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]LGBTQ Religious Archives Network
A site focused on the scholarly study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) religious movements around the world.

LGBTQ Video Game Archive
This archive documents the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer content in games.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]LGBTQ+ Studies Digital Collections (Library of Congress)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries
ONE National Gay & Lesbian 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 currently houses over two million archival items including periodicals, books, film, video and audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records, and personal papers.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]ACT UP Oral History Project
A collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York … A complete transcript of each interview is available through free download via this website.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]OUTHistory
Provides stories about people in the past who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; and people who did not conform to dominant norms of sexuality and gender.

OUT/Look Magazine (1988-1992)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]OUT/Look Historical retrospective

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Digital archive (through Lesbian Poetry Archive)

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]The Queer Archive (Athens)
An Athens based creative platform working with an eclectic list of local and international artists, cultural managers and institutions for the communication of provocative and powerful artistic ideas.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Queer Music Heritage
The Queer Music Homepage is maintained by JD Doyle, a radio host that documented the legacy of LGBT identity in American music over a series of broadcasts from 2000-2015. The episodes are thematic in scope and include topics ranging from 1950s camp records to transgender composers and queerness in punk rock.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Queer Noise
The Queer Noise archive collects various ephemera from “the hidden history of Manchester’s LGBT music culture and club life,” presenting a counter-narrative for a city widely celebrated for its musical past, especially pop and rock. Queer Noise includes materials dating back to the 1950s, but focuses on the 1980s and 1990s, and was conceived as an egalitarian project, sourcing materials (e.g., posters, articles, vinyl) from the public.

[icon name =”globe” suffix=”fa-xs”]Queer Zine Archive Project
Online database of queer zines

Schwules Museum
The Schwules Museum opened in 1985, and was originally located above a gay nightclub. The museum has become one of the world’s largest and most significant LGBTQ museums.

Stonewall National Museum and Archives
An extensive pulp fiction collection; organizational records of local, national and regional LGBT organizations; large serials collection; personal records of local and national personalities; gay erotica –pictorial works; and LGBT ephemera, film, audio and oral histories.

Transgender Archive and Research Library at the Transgender Center
Currently, the archive holds transgender magazines dating back to 1750, transgender statuary from diverse cultures such a China, Africa and Europe, original newspapers recording transgender history dating back to the early 1700s, rare transgender books dating back to the 1600s, original transgender photos dating back to before the Civil War and other transgender artifacts dating back as far as the Roman Empire.

Additional Scholarly Sources (by topic)

Critically Queer [early queer theory]

 

Orientation

 

Queer Aesthetics

  • Jack [Judith] Halberstam, “The Queer Art of Failure,” from The Queer Art of Failure (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 87-121.

 

Compulsory Heterosexuality & Lesbian Existence

  • Adrienne Rich,”Reflections on ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality’,” Journal of Women’s History 16.1 (2004): 9-11.
  • C. L. Cole And Shannon Cate, “Compulsory Gender And Transgender Existence: Adrienne Rich’s Queer Possibility,” in WSQ 36.3-4 (2008): 279-287.

 

AIDS & Viral Visuality

 

Queer Politics

  • Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, “Sex in Public,” Critical Inquiry 24.2 (1998): 547-566.
  • Cathy Cohen, “Punks, Bull Daggers, and Welfare Queens: the Radical Potential of Queer Politics” in The Routledge Queer Studies Reader, eds. Hall & Jagose (New York: Routledge, 2012).
  • Lisa Duggan, “Equality, Inc.,” from The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003): 43-66.
  • Terence Kissack, “Freaking Fag Revolutionaries: New York’s Gay Liberation Front,” Radical History Review 62 (1995): 105-134.
  • Eve Ng, “A ‘Post-Gay’ Era? Media Gaystreaming, Homonormativity, and the Politics of LGBT Integration,” Communication, Culture & Critique 6 (2013): 258-283.

 

Trans* (incl. drag)

  • Judith Butler, “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion,” from Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex,” (New York: Routledge, 1993), 121-142.
  • Leslie Feinberg, “Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come,” in The Transgender Studies Reader, eds. Stryker & Whittle (New York: Routledge, 2006), 205-220.
  • Judith Halberstam, “Drag Kings: Masculinity and Performance,” from Female Masculinity (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998).
  • Heather Love, “The Last Extremists?” In Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, eds. Gossett & Stanley (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2017)
  • Viviane Namaste, “Tragic Misreadings”: Queer Theory’s Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity,” from Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 9-23.
  • Jay Prosser, “Queer Feminism, Transgender, and the Transubstantiation of Sex,” in The Transgender Studies Reader, eds. Stryker & Whittle (New York: Routledge, 2006), 257-280.

 

Television

  • Katherine Sender, Business, Not Politics: The Making of the Gay Market (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).

 

‘Quare’ Studies & Queer of Color Critique

  • Roderick Ferguson, “Introduction: Queer of Color Critique, Historical Materialism, and Canonical Sociology,” from Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003).
  • E. Patrick Johnson & Mae G. Henderson, “Introduction: Queering Black Studies/’Quaring’ Queer Studies,” in Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 1-17.
  • E. Patrick Johnson, “‘Quare’ Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother,” Text and Performance Quarterly 21.1 (2001): 1-25. [original publication/version]
  • Jose Muñoz, “Latina Performance and Queer Worldmaking; or, Chusmería at the End of the Twentieth Century,” from Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 181-200.
  • Mikko Tuhkanen, “Queer Hybridity,” in Deleuze and Queer Theory, eds. Nigianni and Storr (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 92-114.

 

Online Sexuality/Sociality