Lesbian archivists 'disrupt' history as they document their communities' experiences

Queer archivists spoke about their efforts to preserve lesbian history throughout the country during an online event hosted by the Curve Foundation during its Lesbian Visibility Week series.

The April 26 panel included founders, archivists and artists representing Chicago's Gerbert/Hart Library and Archives, Lesbian Herstory Archive in New York and June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives in California.

Each archive was created by queer people in the '70s-'80s who recognized the value of preserving queer history and sought out artifacts from the community. The collections were initially stored in apartments and storage units, while organizers worked to create more permanent spaces to store them.

These archives are dedicated to preserving queer history by collecting a variety of artifacts and writings that demonstrate the complexities of lesbian experiences throughout history.

When the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives was founded in 1981, its policy was to "collect everything a lesbian ever touched," said Angela Brinskele, director of communications at the archives. Preserving these items is a way to "prove that we were here and we did this work," she explained.

"Before our archives, there was no place to mourn the loss of a lover in a setting that would honor their life," said Joan Nestle, co-founder of Lesbian Herstory Archives. "It was about touching the places of the heart that had been so lacerated by social and political and religious judgments of us as less than human."

The act of archiving has "never been neutral" because traditional collections were created to "justify colonial histories," but queer archives can "negotiate power" by preserving alternate ways of existing within the world, said Olivia, special collections coordinator of Lesbian Herstory Archives.

"The point of our archives is that they are intentional disruptions of traditional history," Olivia explained. "Our goal isn't just to be an archive that's gay and that's suddenly better. We don't want to reproduce the problems with archives, we want to create an intentional disruption."

To do so, archivists must strive to capture the vast array of experiences queer women had without trying to sanitize or erase those who exist on the outskirts, Olivia and Nestle said. For example, the Lesbian Herstory Archives has reached out to request more materials from anti-war Palestinian and Jewish lesbians who are working toward Palestinian liberation.

"To be authentic in our lesbianism, in our queerness and in our initial mission, we need to make sure to resist the urge to sanitize our own histories out of fear," Olivia said. "No one is free until the most oppressed of us are free."

These records help to teach young queer people about their history so they can "learn how their ancestors resisted," Olivia explained. They also remind visitors they're not alone in the world, Brinskele said.

"No matter how weird you think you are, somebody has come before you that's like you," Brinskele relayed. "I find that people often show up and they're shocked to see they feel at home or found somebody who seems just like them they didn't believe existed. You can't get that self-esteem and empowerment everywhere, especially as women."

The archives provide a space for people to come together and learn about their history, said Erin Bell, operations director at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives.

"An archive isn't just the actual materials that are being preserved, it's the space where those materials live," Bell said. "That's something we take very seriously. We want to make sure this space feels comfortable, so people can be themselves and explore history. We want it to feel like their space, that they can add to or at least use the materials."

Amanda Cervantes uses the archives at Gerber Hart to create art that "looks to the past to reference the present" and helps younger people connect with those who came before them.

In 2023, Cervantes created an exhibition called, "Amigas Latinas Forever," to display hundreds of flyers created by the advocacy group Amigas Latinas, which served LGBTQ+ Latinx Chicagoans from 1995-2015. The flyers were mailed to members' homes to advertise family-friendly events, community picnics and discussions, where people came together to talk about queerness, child rearing, race, class, immigration and much more.

"Something I loved about the flyers was that they created a physical social network," Cervantes explained. "They were made with a lot of care. There were a lot of beautiful, bright colors and clip art. I wanted to showcase the labor that went into creating these, so folks could see how they built these programs and this network they created long before social media, that allowed them to connect and find common ground."