Research Guides: American LGBTQIA+ History: Find Primary Sources

Librarian

Kristina Claunch

Contact:

936-294-1520
kclaunch@shsu.edu
Library (NGL) Room 223G

First Televised Documentary on Homosexuality

The Rejected (Documentary, 1961)
"Debuting on September 11, 1961, The Rejected was notable for not only being the first ever televised documentary on homosexuality ever aired in America, but for its inclusion of homosexuals in the conversation." "The Rejected was originally produced by KQED for National Educational Television (NET) - the predecessor of WNET - and first aired on September 11th 1961, on KQED Ch.9 in the Bay Area." (DIVA, San Francisco State Univ.)

Primary Sources in Library Databases

Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, and the Daughters Of Bilitis This link opens in a new window
Archive material documenting an important topic in 20th century American LGBT history.
Digitized material from the Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin Papers provides extensive information on the founding and growth of the homophile movement, especially the Daughters of Bilitis and The Ladder, including early meeting minutes, correspondence, chapter records, membership data, and manuscripts unavailable elsewhere.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Simultaneously search the Library's subscriptions to the historical archives of the Austin-American Statesman, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1998 This link opens in a new window
Includes the Dallas Morning News, 1885-1984, along with many other papers nationwide.
Houston Chronicle Historical and Current, 1901-present This link opens in a new window The Houston Chronicle is the only daily newspaper in the fourth largest city in the United States, and provides local, national and international news, features, sports and opinion for the region.
Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 This link opens in a new window New content is added each year. Consult the resource itself for the most recent content available.
Every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2015, including full-color images, multiple search indexes, and browsing facilities. Timely reporting, concise commentary, and comprehensive analysis of global news, including political, business, scientific, technological, and cultural developments and the connections between them.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Historical magazines of many varieties.
Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Research major legal cases in GLBT history.

Primary Source Collections Online: LGBT / GLBTQ / Sexual Orientation

ACTUP Oral History Project Collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), New York. From site: "The purpose of this project is to present comprehensive, complex, human, collective, and individual pictures of the people who have made up ACT UP/New York. These men and women of all races and classes have transformed entrenched cultural ideas about homosexuality, sexuality, illness, health care, civil rights, art, media, and the rights of patients. They have achieved concrete changes in medical and scientific research, insurance, law, health care delivery, graphic design, and introduced new and effective methods for political organizing. These interviews reveal what has motivated them to action and how they have organized complex endeavors." (a program of MIX—the New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, funded by several major public and private grants, including the New York State Council on the Arts)
Archive of Lesbian Oral Testimony Collects and makes available the oral histories of people who presently or at one time identified as lesbian. Material in the Archives includes oral history audio tapes, radio and television program tapes, as well as video and film produced by documentary filmmakers, and home video and film. (Simon Fraser Univ.)
The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions "We are Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archive. We collect and maintain collections related to LGBTQ2+ life in Canada, including books, archival papers, artifacts, photographs, and art. Founded in 1973, we have grown to become the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archive in the world."
Digital Transgender Archive From site overview: "Online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. International collaboration among more than twenty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections, based at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts." "The DTA uses the term transgender to refer to a broad and inclusive range of non-normative gender practices...We collect materials from anywhere in the world with a focus on materials created before the year 2000."
Dyke TV, 1993-2005 The half-hour weekly, nation-wide cable tv show featured a five-minute news segment covering issues relevant to lesbian lives from a lesbian perspective; and in-depth stories including politics, popular culture, health, art, sports, and music. (Smith College)
The Empty Closet, 1971-2011 One of the oldest continuously published LGBT papers in the United States. Begun at the University of Rochester by Bob Osborn and Larry Fine, the founders of the UR student group, Rochester Gay Liberation Front, and later transferred to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley (GAGV). (University of Rochester)
Focus Point Newspaper, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1994-2000
(Minnesota Digital Library)
Gay Radio Recordings, 1973-1984
Multimedia from the archive of the GLBT Historical Society.
GLBT Historical Society: Digital Collections Various collections include the Bay Area Reporter Archive, the ACT UP San Francisco Oral History Project, video and photograph collections, The Gay Life Radio Series, an LGBTQ art and artifacts collection, and more.
GLC Voice Newspaper, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1979-1992
(Minnesota Digital Library)
Herstories: A Digital Archive Digitized access to select video oral histories from the Lesbian Herstory Archive in Brooklyn. Digitized by students at the Pratt School of Information and Library Sciences.
Houston Area Rainbow Collective History (ARCH) Oral Histories The collection includes interview recordings with Houstonians who have made contributions to the LGBT community. (Center for the Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality (SWGS) at Rice University)
LGBT Publications Digital Collection
(Univ. of Texas San Antonio)
Lollie Johnson Papers
(Univ. of Texas San Antonio)
Mazer Lesbian Archives
(Univ. of California Los Angeles)
New York City Pride March, 1977 - Photos
(Photographer Meryl Meisler and Vice)
ONE Archive - Digital Audio
(ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries)
Online Exhibitions from the LGBT Religious Archives Network Each exhibition explores a particular subject of LGBT religious history and includes diverse artifacts, such as photos, articles, correspondence, documents and audio or video clips, that have been found in archives.
OutHistory.org Oral histories, visual materials, and documents. Caveat: This site combines historical materials and modern synthesis/interpretation, so consider each information source carefully to determine whether it is primary or secondary. (Jonathan Ned Katz, in collaboration with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York and John D’Emilio of the University of Illinois Chicago)
Out in the Redwoods: GLBT Oral Histories from UC Santa Cruz
(Univ. of California Santa Cruz, Regional History Project)
Photos from the Lesbian Herstory Archive
(New York Heritage Digital Collections)
Rainbow History Project: Archives Online
(Rainbow History Project, Washington, D.C.)
Stonewall Riot Police Reports
(OutHistory)

GLBTQ Archives Around the Nation

These archives may or may not have material digitized and accessible online, but they represent some of the most critical collections available in American GLBTQ history.

"Lavender Legacies: Guide to Sources in North America," a guide from the Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists
Provides state by state listings of collections, including those in Texas
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries
The largest repository of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) materials in the world. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
LGBT Community Center National History Archive
New York, NY
GLBT Historical Society Archives
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Public Library's James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center
Collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.
Barbara Gittings Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia
The second largest (after San Francisco Public Library) gay and lesbian collection in a public library. Philadelphia, PA
Lesbian Herstory Archives
World's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities. Brooklyn, NY
Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies
University of Minnesota Libraries
Gerber/Hart Library and Archives
Founded in 1981 to be a depository for the records of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals and organizations, and for other resources bearing upon their lives and experiences in American society. Chicago, IL
Stonewall National Museum and Archives
Fort Lauderdale, FL
June Mazer Lesbian Archives
West Hollywood, CA
Lambda Archives - San Diego LGBT History
San Diego, CA
Collections Catalog from the LGBT Religious Archives Network
If you are interested in the history of LGBT religious movements, this guide will identify relevant, publicly accessible archive collections. The LGBT Religious Archives Network (LGBT-RAN) is an innovative venture in preserving history and encouraging scholarly study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) religious movements around the world.

What is a Primary Source?

Primary vs. Secondary Sources: A Guide to Understanding

Primary Sources in Print

Often a variety of primary documents are collected together into a book (usually related to a time period, topic, or theme).

Below are just a few broad collections in the Library; each book contains many original documents.

(Note: many of these books will contain both primary and secondary content, so use your judgement or ask a librarian for help in distinguishing the two).

Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A documentary history
Call Number: HQ76.8 .U5 G37 2003, 4th floor
An anthology of primary documents for students who are studying or debating the issues of gay and lesbian rights in America, dating from colonial times to the present.
Gay Is Good: The life and letters of gay rights pioneer Franklin Kameny
Call Number: HQ75.8 .K35 A4 2014 (4th floor)
Contrary to popular notions, today's LGBT movement did not begin with the Stonewall riots in 1969. Long before Stonewall, there was Franklin Kameny (1925-2011), one of the most significant figures in the gay rights movement. In Gay Is Good, Long collects Kameny's historically rich letters, revealing some of the early stirrings of today's politically powerful LGBT movement.
Proud Heritage: People, issues, and documents of the LGBT experience
Call Number: Read Online
Reference work tracing the roots and development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights and issues in the United States from the pre-colonial period to the present day. Volume 2 in particular contains historical documents, from biblical times to the present, and volume 3 presents state laws and issues concerning LGBT rights.
Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A new documentary in which is contained, in chronological order, evidence of the true and fantastical history of those persons now called lesbians and gay men by Jonathan N. Katz
Call Number: HQ76.8 .U5 K37 1983 - second copy available at HQ76.8 .U5 K37 1994
Publication Date: 1983

GLBTQ Archives in Texas

Gulf Coast Archives and Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History, Inc.
Houston, TX. Includes local periodicals such as "Houston/Montrose Voice," "OutSmart," and others, photographs, costume pieces, pride memorabilia, and more.
LGBT History Collections at the University of Houston
LGBT History collections include personal papers, organizations records, and library collections that preserve and promote collective understanding of Houston’s and the region’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender communities and service organizations. Materials document the communities’ activist, cultural, social, and political activities, and the personal experiences of community members. Note: UH has now also acquired the Botts collection, which was previously housed independently in Houston.

For Texas archives in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Denton, refer to this guide from the Society of American Archivists:

"Lavender Legacies: Guide to Sources in North America," a guide from the Lesbian and Gay Archives Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists
Provides state by state listings of collections, including those in Texas