Archives Projects
This page details current special projects the archives are undertaking, including collection-development initiatives and preservation projects.
Calle 16 and Beyond Archives Project
Tina Valentin Aguirre (center) stands with friends at the opening of the Chosen Familias exhibition in 2019. Left–right: Augie Robles, Board Member Rigoberto Marquez, Board Member Mason J., former Executive Director Terry Beswick, Natalia Vigil, Prado Gomez, Loras Ojeda, former Board Chair Tina Valentin Aguirre, Shane Zaldivar, Board Member Lito Sandoval, Donna Persona, Fabian Echevarría and Juan Fernández. Photograph by Gerard Koskovich, used with permission.
For decades, San Francisco’s 16th Street, from Guerrero all the way to South Van Ness in the Mission District, has been a thriving, colorful corridor for LGBTQ Latinx people, businesses and happenings. As the city has grown more expensive and the neighborhood has undergone redevelopment, many of these businesses have closed and much of its character is in danger of eradication.
This new archives collection-development initiative aims to enrich the society’s existing Latinx holdings by documenting the lives, businesses and culture of this unique queer corridor. The project is being spearheaded by Mx. Tina Valentin Aguirre, a former board chair of the GLBT Historical Society. To read an interview with Tina about Calle 16, click here. For more information, click here.
Out/Look Preservation Project
OUT/LOOK: National Lesbian & Gay Quarterly was a groundbreaking queer magazine published between 1987 and 1992 by the OUT/LOOK Foundation. In addition to the magazine, the organization’s staff also produced the annual OutWrite Conferences, held between 1990 and 1992. The magazine was notable for broadly inclusive subject matter and for bridging the gap between academic and creative writing. The GLBT Historical Society’s archives contain significant holdings in the OUT/LOOK Foundation Records (collection 1992-11) that document the magazine, conferences and functioning of the organization.
The collection contains organizational records, correspondence, board materials and meeting minutes, financial records, grant materials, circulation information, personnel records, publicity files, editorial content, production files, writings, artists’ files, conference materials and audiotapes, subject files, newsclippings, and photographs. Click here to browse the record for the Foundation Records.
We are raising funds to support the digitization of the magnetic tapes in the OUT/LOOK Foundation Records, before the information they contain is lost due to degradation. The estimated cost to digitize and permanently preserve the at-risk information in this collection is $7,000. You can support this work by clicking here.