Oral histories have been a way to capture the past passed down from generation to generation. Many family histories never make it into published form, and word of mouth serves as the vehicle for remembering days gone by. In the same way, the LGBT ‘family’ has its own vivid (dare I say colorful?) narrative and there needs to be a way to channel the plethora of voices from the community into one collective body of knowledge.
It turns out that there is a way. I attended a conference in Seattle last month and heard a presentation by the Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project, a group that seeks to record the events of yesterday with first-hand accounts of the people that LIVED those moments. In addition, they also collect ephemera like party invitations, photos and other lesbian and gay artifacts to ensure that future generations will be able to learn and understand what it was like to grow up ‘different’ in the Northwest. The group, which includes two geography professors from the University of Washington, has also produced a historic map of gay Seattle and a collection of narratives from the project.
After the presentation, that got me thinking – is there anything like that in Wisconsin? As a matter of fact, there’s the Milwaukee LGBT History Project, which has a collection housed at UW-Milwaukee Library – Archives Department. You’ll also find more items of LGBT interest on the Archives website. Pretty cool, huh?
Anybody know of any more local collections?
