Collection Contents
Series 1
Personal
1974-1994
Physical Description: 11 carton, 14 folders and 10 notebooks
Series Description
This series includes materials from the personal life of Sheldon Ramsdell. This series contains 19 personal journals and
notebooks. These journals cover a range of topics including Ramsdell's personal struggles with AIDS, reflections on current
politics and issues, news clippings, letters, and other personal information. Also found in this series are newspaper clippings
about or written by Ramsdell, items from a memorial service for a friend of Ramsdell's, information about an experimental
HIV treatment Ramsdell was undergoing, a play, and an Oral History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Finally, this series
includes two photograph albums, loose color snapshots and a box of personal effects. One of the albums is by Dan Yoder, a
friend of Randy Shilts, who died in 1995. The personal effects include address books, passport issued in 1968, Yoder's and
Ramsdell's wallets (with personal id), a rubber stamp and several pipes.
Box: Folder 1: 1
Spiral Bound Journal
11/2/91 to 12/12/91
Box: Folder 1: 2
Spiral Bound Journal
12/10/91 to 1/9/92
Box: Folder 1: 3
Spiral Bound Journal
1/10/92 to 2/18/92
Box: Folder 1: 4
Spiral Bound Journal
2/92 to 4/1/92
Box: Folder 2: 1
Spiral Bound Journal
4/3/92/ to 7/9/92
Box: Folder 2: 2
Spiral Bound Journal
8/1/92 to 11/11/92
Box: Folder 2: 3
Spiral Bound Journal
11/13/92 to 2/2/93
Box: Folder 2: 4
Spiral Bound Journal
2/2/93 to 5/19/93
Box: Folder 3: 1
Spiral Bound Journal
6/7/93 to 6/30/94
Box: Folder 3: 2
Black Journal
8/6/89 to 10/89
Box: Folder 3: 3
Red/Black Plaid Notebook
12/6/89 to 8/15/91
Box: Folder 3: 4
Cacti Covered Journal
1/1/91 to 7/2/91
Box: Folder 3: 4
Red Cover "Community Quotations" Notebook
7/8/91 to 8/8/91
Box: Folder 3: 6
Blue Marbled Notebook
8/31/91 to 10/24/91
Box: Folder 3: 7
Notebook labeled "confidential"
5/8/92 to 7/21/92
Box: Folder 3: 8
Plaid Notebook
4/12/93 to 6/26/93
Box: Folder 3: 9
Single Subject Notebook
8/14/92 to 9/14/93
Box: Folder 3: 10
White "Reporters Notebook"
9/14/93 to 10/27/93
Box: Folder 3: 11
White "Reporters Notebook"
9/18/93 to 11/27/93
Box: Folder 4: 1
"Weather Vanes: American Dreams Lost", Oral History of the Founding of the Vietnam Veterans Against theWar
1991
Box: Folder 4: 2
Denis Bittern Memorial Service
1986
Box: Folder 4: 3
Videx Experimental AIDS Treatment Program
1989
Box: Folder 4: 4
"Maria Elena" by Hank Villate
1979-1977
Box 5
Carton of photograph albums, snapshots and personal effects
circa 1968-1994
Series 2
Activism
1975-1993
Physical Description: 13 folders
Series Description
This series documents Ramsdell's participation in various causes. There are two subseries AIDS Activism and Other Causes.
The AIDS Activism contains materials which illustrate Ramsdell's activities as an AIDS activist in San Francisco, particularly
as a member of ACT UP Golden Gate and participating in the fight against Proposition 64, the "LaRouche Initiative" which sought
to place AIDS back on the state's List of Communicable Diseases subject to Public Health law. The subseries Other Causes documents
Ramsdell's participation in attempts to overturn the United States Military's ban on homosexuals and other materials particularly
surrounding the formulation of President Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. The rest of the materials cover several
other causes including petitioning for prison reforms, outreach to religious leaders and believers, interactions with the
San Francisco Human Right Commission, and analysis of 1988 Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis' rhetoric regarding AIDS.
Box : Folder 4: 8
AIDS related articles and ephemera
1988-1991
Box : Folder 4: 9
Mobilization Against AIDS
1988
Box : Folder 4: 11
ACT UP Golden Gate
1992-1993
Box : Folder 4: 12
ACT UP, "Mayor's Call to Action on the HIV epidemic"
1990
Box : Folder 4: 13 - 4: 21
Box : Folder 4: 17
Religious Outreach
1975-1993
Box : Folder 4: 18
Religious Outreach Contacts
Undated
Box : Folder 4: 19
Human Right Commission
1989-1990
Box : Folder 4: 20
California Medical Facility Papers
1992-1993
Box : Folder 4: 21
Michael Dukakis Campaign Rhetoric
1988
