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Harvey Milk and Scott Smith collection of artifacts and ephemera
2002-43  
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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: Harvey Milk and Scott Smith collection of artifacts and ephemera
    Dates: 1973-1993
    Collection Number: 2002-43
    Creator/Collector: Milk, Harvey Smith, Scott
    Extent: 15 cartons, 8 oversize boxes, miscellaneous large objects not in boxes (55 linear feet)
    Repository: GLBT Historical Society
    San Francisco, California 94103
    Abstract: The collection includes artifacts and ephemera relating to Harvey Milk’s campaign for and election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, his assassination, and the Castro Camera store; and clothing and memorabilia that belonged to both Milk and Scott Smith.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research. Funding for processing this collection was provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Harvey Milk and Scott Smith collection of artifacts and ephemera. Collection Number: 2002-43. GLBT Historical Society

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Elva R. Smith in November 2002.

    Biography/Administrative History

    Harvey Bernard Milk was born on May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York. He graduated from the New York State Teachers College at Albany in 1951 and served in the U.S. Navy until 1955. Milk worked briefly in New York on Wall Street. In 1972, Milk moved to San Francisco and soon after asked his boyfriend Scott Smith to follow him. They opened Castro Camera the following year. After two unsuccessful campaigns for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1973 and 1975, Milk was elected to the Board in November 1977. On January 9, 1978, Milk was sworn into office. In November 1978, ex-Supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Joseph Scott Smith (1948-1995) was a gay rights activist and Harvey Milk’s lover. Smith organized and managed Milk’s political campaigns. Although their relationship ended more than a year before the assassination, the two remained close friends and business partners in the camera store up until Milk's death.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection includes artifacts and ephemera relating to Harvey Milk’s campaign for, and election to, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; materials related to Milk’s assassination; artifacts from the Castro Camera store; clothing that belonged to both Milk and Smith; memorabilia and artifacts that had personal meaning for Milk and Smith; and political posters. There is some material in the collection that dates back to the late 1960s. For manuscript material and photographs, please refer to the Harvey Milk Archives--Scott Smith Collection at the San Francisco Public Library: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8x63q17/. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_003201; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381

    Indexing Terms

    Gay men
    Politics and elections
    Milk, Harvey--Archives.

    Additional collection guides