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Title: Cypress papers
Dates: 1943-1998
Collection Number: 2001-09
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 7.5 linear feet (6 cartons)
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: Cypress (Susan Rosenthal Glick), 1943-1997, was a working-class, disabled Jewish writer, photographer, and political activist
who alternately identified as lesbian and bisexual. The collection contains Cypress’ art, photography, writing, and journals,
as well as various personal documents, subject files, and biographical material compiled by her friends.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research, except for three folders relating to Cypress’ medical condition, her mother’s medical condition,
and her Social Security benefits, which have been restricted until 2047, fifty years after Cypress’ 1997 death. (Her mother’s
exact date of death is unknown, but it is known that Cypress survived her.)
[Identification of item]. Cypress papers. Collection Number: 2001-09. GLBT Historical Society
The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Adrienne Lauby in 2001.
Biography/Administrative History
Cypress (Susan Rosenthal Glick), 1943-1997, was a working-class, disabled Jewish writer, photographer, and political activist
who alternately identified as lesbian and bisexual. From early adulthood, she lived on Social Security due to a mental health
diagnosis described at different points in the collection as depression, schizophrenia, and a generic emotional disability.
She devoted her life to activism, subsistence gardening, and creativity. She was active in the women’s back-to-land movement
in the 1970s and 1980s and in the movement for the legalization of cannabis, as well as being a founding member of the Berkeley
Women’s Refuge. Cypress traveled widely and was a longtime resident of Oakland and Sonoma County; she died of breast cancer
in 1997.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains Cypress’ art, photography, writing, and journals, as well as various personal documents, subject files,
and biographical material compiled by her friends. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_001590;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008520
Lesbians
Bisexual people
People with disabilities