Donating archival materials

The GLBT Historical Society is happy to consider new donations that support the mission of the organization. If you have materials you want to donate, please read our Collection Development Policy below and contact the Acting Archives Director, Isaac Fellman. Please do not mail or drop off donations without first contacting us. Collection donations are not accepted at the GLBT Historical Society Museum.

Collection Development Policy

Overview 

The GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity. Founded in 1985, the society is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of LGBTQ public history. The society is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.  

The Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Special Collections of the GLBT Historical Society contains one of the largest and most extensive holdings in the world of materials pertaining to LGBTQ people, with a special focus on Northern California. Broadly speaking, our collections include personal papers, organizational records, periodicals, oral histories, photographs, audiovisual recordings, ephemera, artifacts, textiles, and works of art.  

The archives are open to the public and serve a diverse range of researchers. We actively engage in donor stewardship and collection development in order to continue to build our collections for research and educational purposes.  

This collection development policy is guided by the following principles:  

  • Providing open public access to historical materials.  

  • Collecting historical materials that are inclusive of diverse perspectives, voices, and communities and that provide meaningful evidence of the vast queer past. 

  • Documenting transparent and reliable information about the provenance of materials in the archives.  

  • Responsibly stewarding collections already in our care and ensuring the capacity to do the same for any additional materials, including physical and digital collections, over time. 

Collecting scope

Collection Strengths

The archives document a broad range of LGBTQ people, organizations, and experiences, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. As a queer community-based archive, we recognize that LGBTQ historical material comes in many formats; our collections reflect this and include both conventional and unconventional archival materials. 

Our current collection strengths include material documenting:  

  • Lesbians and gay men in World War II. 

  • The homophile movement, gay liberation, and LGBTQ organizing and activism in California from the 1950s to the 2000s. 

  • LGBTQ life in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, including extensive photograph collections from the 1970s-2000s. 

  • The HIV/AIDS epidemic in California. 

  • San Francisco Bay Area electoral politics. 

  • The leather and kink community, especially as it relates to gay men. 

  • Erotica and sexually explicit media, especially that created by and for gay men. 

  • Major San Francisco LGBTQ events including Pride, Folsom Street Fair, Castro Street Fair, and others. 

  • The lives of prominent San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ individuals, including personal materials such as diaries, correspondence, photographs, and home movies.         

  • LGBTQ periodicals and ephemera.  

Current Collecting Areas and Priorities

In alignment with goals outlined in the GLBT Historical Society Strategic Plan, we are prioritizing material that is underrepresented in our existing holdings, especially material related to the collecting areas described below. Our goal is to better document Northern California’s diverse LGBTQ communities and histories. Collection data demonstrates that the archives have strong representation of the histories of gay men, white people, middle-class and wealthy people, and cisgender people. We acknowledge the gaps in this representation and seek to strategically expand the archives by focusing on the following collecting areas and pursuing collecting partnerships with individuals and organizations who have created historical material related to these areas. In order to prioritize our limited resources to this work, we may choose to decline additional collections that represent histories strongly documented in current holdings. While each person’s story and contribution is unique, this policy is in place to serve researchers and the community by better documenting the vast queer past. If staff determine that materials do not fit our collecting scope or are already strongly represented in our collections, options for alternative repositories will be provided to interested donors.  

Priority Collecting Areas: 

  • Black, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Southwest Asian and North African, and other people of color LGBTQ communities, individuals, and histories. 

  • LGBTQ Indigenous and Two-Spirit communities, individuals, and histories. 

  • Transgender, intersex, and non-binary communities, individuals, and histories.  

  • Lesbian communities, individuals, and histories, particularly queer women of color.  

  • Material related to bisexual, pansexual, and asexual people, as well as other underrepresented queer sexual communities. 

  • LGBTQ people with disabilities. 

  • LGBTQ poor and working-class people, including those experiencing homelessness.  

  • Personal material created by LGBTQ sex workers and records related to sex worker organizing.  

  • Material documenting LGBTQ life in Northern California outside of the city of San Francisco, with special focus on the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Additional Collecting Guidelines

  • Material should relate to LGBTQ history in Northern California. Material related to other geographic areas will likely be out of scope.   

  • We do not collect books. Other published material and material widely available in libraries, including reports, dissertations, chapbooks, and popular magazines and newspapers (or clippings from these) are also typically outside of our collecting scope. Rare LGBTQ periodicals and issues that fill out our existing holdings may be considered.  

  • Widely-collected and/or commercial sound and video recordings are typically outside of our collecting scope.  

  • We do not accept facsimiles and reproductions of materials from other archives and we do not accept duplicates of existing holdings.  

  • Works of art, textiles, and artifacts are considered on a case-by-case basis. Our capacity to accept these materials is extremely limited. Staff may choose to not accept these items if they are similarly represented in current holdings; we do not have the space, resources, or staff expertise to care for them long term; or they do not demonstrate unique, enduring historical significance and research value aligned with our current collecting priorities. Due to current space constraints, oversize artifacts such as building features and signs (including neon) are no longer accepted. Pins and plaques/awards are often outside of our current collecting scope.  

  • Exhibit records and materials used for museum displays are typically outside of our collecting scope.  

  • We will review LGBTQ pornography and erotica for adults by adults on a case-by-case basis. Material that is already similarly represented in the archives will likely be declined. We are prioritizing material that aligns with our current collecting areas. 

  • Due to staffing constraints, we are not currently recording oral histories. If a donor is interested in contributing an oral history project they have completed to the archives, we can review that material on a case-by-case basis. 

  • The papers of an individual or the records of an organization should be kept together when possible. If another repository already stewards a substantial collection, we would recommend that related materials be donated to that repository.  

  • We do not accept materials that are irreparably damaged or infested by insects or mold or that require specialized preservation work beyond the capacity of the archives.  

Guidelines for Donors

Donation Process

Please contact the archives if you are interested in donating material. Collection donations are accepted only after thorough review by archives staff. Collection donations are not accepted at the GLBT Historical Society Museum. Please do not drop off or mail material without prior approval; material given to the archives without agreement may be discarded at the discretion of archival staff.  

Once material has been reviewed and accepted for the archives, a formal Deed of Gift will be executed. The Deed of Gift specifies the materials to be donated, transfers physical and legal ownership to the historical society, and outlines any conditions specific to the gift regarding copyright and restrictions. The Deed of Gift is administered and signed by archival staff and the donor. All donations must be outright gifts; we do not accept materials on deposit and we do not accept materials for which the donor's ownership is in question or disputed. The historical society does not currently have the resources to establish a collection development budget and we do not purchase materials.  

The archives will provide a letter acknowledging the receipt of the material that may be used for tax purposes. While archives staff are content experts capable of providing historical appraisal of materials, they cannot provide financial appraisals or tax or other legal advice. Donors are responsible for the financial appraisal of materials, should they choose to have their materials fiscally valued. The archives cannot recommend individual appraisers.   

Materials acquired will be cataloged after transfer and this description will be available online, for world-wide discovery. We strive to promote the presence of all collections, even collections that may be unprocessed or include access restrictions. 

Successful collection stewardship requires a mix of initial and ongoing resources, including staff, space, supplies, equipment, and overhead. Donors may consider a monetary donation to help fund these ongoing needs and increase our capacity to preserve and share these important materials.    

Privacy 

The materials that donors collect in their lives can reveal sensitive information about themselves and others. Donors should inform archival staff of any materials that have privacy concerns, especially those that may require temporary restriction from research use, either to protect a donor’s privacy or legal rights or those of third parties. In special cases, we may agree to limit researcher access for a period of time. This decision is agreed to and documented within the Deed of Gift. We do not accept materials with indefinite restrictions or restrictions on who can access the material.  

Donors of archival materials share a responsibility with archival staff to consider the privacy of third parties. We ask that donors discuss materials with potential third-party privacy concerns with archives staff and, when possible, discuss the inclusion of third-party information with those affected by it prior to donating the material.  

We will make a good faith effort to review material for protected personal information, including medical and personnel records, and will take appropriate action to restrict access according to any applicable laws and professional standards.   

Digitization and Electronic Records 

We engage in on-demand and strategic digitization projects so that more materials will be accessible to more researchers. Any materials that are digitized are likely to be made accessible online, unless otherwise restricted. It is uncommon to digitize entire collections because of the intensive resources required to do so. 

Some formats, including electronic records and at-risk sound and video formats, require special stewardship for their ongoing preservation and use. Staff may choose to decline these collections if we are unable to steward them long term or provide access due to staffing, technological, or other limitations.  

Deaccessioning 

Collections may be reevaluated to maintain relevance for our collecting scope. This review may necessitate the removal of parts or entire collections, adhering to professional best practices including the Society of American Archivists’ Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning. Materials that duplicate holdings, fall outside of our established collecting scope, or otherwise do not fit the mission of the GLBT Historical Society Archives may be deaccessioned, subject to donor agreements and legal restrictions. Deaccessioning can mean the return of materials to the donor, the transfer of materials to another repository, or the removal of materials by other means at the discretion of the GLBT Historical Society. Final deaccessioning determinations are made by qualified archival staff in concert with other relevant stakeholders.   

Policy Review

This Collection Development Policy was approved March 2024. It has been reviewed by internal and external stakeholders. It will be reviewed and evaluated regularly to ensure that it remains in alignment with the current GLBT Historical Society mission, professional standards, and the stewardship capacity of the archives.  

Banner photo: José Sarria campaign materials, 1961; José Sarria Papers (1996-01), GLBT Historical Society