Sisters of Survival (S.O.S.) was an anti-nuclear performance group founded in 1981 by Cheri Gaulke, Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, and Sue Maberry. The archive consists primarily of project files documenting performances, exhibitions, and publications from Sisters of Survival's main period of activity from 1982 to 1985 and some later projects, and includes photographic materials, planning documents, ephemera, digital files, audiovisual materials, and exhibition materials. The archive also contains press clippings and promotional images, administrative files, and a small amount of materials by other anti-nuclear artists and activists.

Sisters of Survival was an anti-nuclear performance group founded in 1981 by Cheri Gaulke, Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, and Sue Maberry. The group was one of the last collectives to emerge from the Woman's Building, a non-profit arts and education center which operated in Los Angeles between 1973 and 1991. Sisters of Survival members were also members of other performance art groups founded at the Woman's Building: Allyn and Gauldin were members of The Waitresses, while Gaulke and Angelo were members of Feminist Art Workers. To symbolize their sisterhood, Sisters of Survival wore colorful adaptations of religious habits during their performances. They also incorporated semaphore flags as accessories in a nod to their acronym, S.O.S. During their main period of activity from 1981 to 1985, Angelo, Gauldin, Gaulke, and Maberry were based in the Los Angeles area while Allyn coordinated activities in New York. Angelo left the group in 1982.

44.65 Linear Feet (56 boxes; 3 boxed-rolls; 2 flatfiles. Computer media: 9.01 GB [551 files])

Open for use by qualified researchers.