Oral history of Tom Baker (S. Thomas Baker), interviewed by Shawn Sprockett in January 2024. At the time of the oral history, Baker was a 93 year-old gay man living in the Castro in San Francisco, CA. He had lived in San Francisco for nearly 50 years. The interview discusses Baker’s early life and teenage years, his coming out experience in the 1950s, his gay community, experiences with gay bars in San Francisco, his interactions with police, and other related topics. The collection includes an mp3 audio recording and pdf transcript of the interview. Also included are matchbooks of bars, collected by Baker and given to Sprockett.

mp3 file of the oral history; pdf file of the interview transcript; 1 folder of matchbooks

Copyright to materials created by Shawn Sprockett and Tom Baker has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society. All requests for reproductions and/or permission to publish or quote from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Collection is open for research.