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Title: Martin Meeker collection
Dates: 1943-2003
Collection Number: 2008-22
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 1 carton
Online items available
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: Contains materials collected by historian Martin Meeker. The collection includes audiotapes of oral histories, including the
“Go West” interviews Meeker conducted for his dissertation and book, “Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and
Community, 1940s-1970s”; and slides from his presentation, “Communication, Migration and the Making of the Homosexual Communities
in the 1950s and 1960s.” The subject files, ephemera and news clippings were a gift to Meeker from Bill Tellman, who was a
painter and Chuck Arnett’s “widow.”
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research. This collection has been digitized in partnership with Gale/Cengage. Contact the GLBT Historical
Society archivist for information regarding access to the digital collection.
[Identification of item]. Martin Meeker collection. Collection Number: 2008-22. GLBT Historical Society
Gift of Martin Meeker on April 19, 2008.
Scope and Content of Collection
Contains materials collected by historian Martin Meeker. The collection includes audiotapes of oral histories, including the
“Go West” interviews Meeker conducted for his dissertation and book, “Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and
Community, 1940s-1970s”; and slides from his presentation, “Communication, Migration and the Making of the Homosexual Communities
in the 1950s and 1960s.” The subject files, ephemera and news clippings were a gift to Meeker from Bill Tellman, who was a
painter and Chuck Arnett’s “widow.” Tellman’s files include “Chuck Arnett’s ‘Morgue’ for Gayle Rubin,” a small amount of correspondence
and personalia, and a photo album labeled “Will Tellman’s Gay Uncle,” from the 1940s. Interview subjects are Bill Tellman,
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, Ida Red, Don Lucas, Hal Call, Simon Karlinsky, Lori Guidos, David Barnard, Bill [Choisser], Jim
Hicks, Leonard Shapiro, Carol Seajay, Gerson Goodkind, Bruce Baird, Mike Caffee, Perry Wood, Bill Reque, Richard Tooker, Weldon
Rash, Linda Blackmore, Larry Buttwinick. There are also tapes of a 1950s radio program that included a character that could
be gay. The sound quality of the interviews varies. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008536; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008194;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008519; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000374; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381
World War, 1939-1945
Oral history
Photography
Gay men
Lesbians