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Stephen F. Lowell photographs and papers
1996-05  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional collection guides

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Stephen F. Lowell photographs and papers
    Dates: ca. 1968-1970
    Collection Number: 1996-05
    Creator/Collector: Lowell, Stephen F.
    Extent: 2 linear feet (2 boxes, 1 oversize box)
    Repository: GLBT Historical Society
    San Francisco, California 94103
    Abstract: The bulk of the collection consists of Stephen F. Lowell’s photographs of gay hippies and male nudes in the 1970s including mounted prints, proofs, contact sheets and negatives. The collection also includes position papers, broadsides, essays, and poetry from “progressive” organizations, including material on women’s issues from throughout the country.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    The manuscript portion of the collection is open for research. Researchers should contact the GLBTHS Managing Archivist for access to the photographs, which are not sorted. The erotica in this collection may only be viewed by researchers age eighteen and over and it is made available for educational and research purposes. Funding for processing this collection was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

    Publication Rights

    Copyright was transferred to the GLBT Historical Society.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Stephen F. Lowell photographs and papers. Collection Number: 1996-05. GLBT Historical Society

    Acquisition Information

    The papers were donated by Donn Tatum in 1996.

    Biography/Administrative History

    A native Californian, Stephen Lowell was a pioneer in the Gay Liberation Front and a seminal figure in the flowering of gay culture in post-Stonewall San Francisco. Along with Donn Tatum, he founded the Paperback Traffic Bookstores in San Francisco, the Eureka Arcade/Patio Cafe complex on Castro Street (including Skin Zone and the Thousand Fingers crafts co-operative) and was a pioneer organizer of the San Francisco Dharmadhata Buddhist Meditation Center.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The bulk of the collection consists of Lowell’s photographs of gay hippies and male nudes in the 1970s. There are mounted prints, proofs, contact sheets and negatives. Almost all the manuscript materials in the Stephen Lowell Collection are from the year 1970. The collection includes position papers, broadsides, essays, and poetry from “progressive” organizations, including material on women’s issues from throughout the country. The more clearly political publications are from the Red Butterfly Collective, Gay Flames from the NYC Gay Liberation Front and an essay by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. There is also poetry, letters and anthologies of creative works from Bob Rivera, Charles Shively and the Hoddypoll Press in San Francisco. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000374; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008194

    Indexing Terms

    Photography
    Gay men

    Additional collection guides