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Ted Rolfs papers
1997-01  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Ted Rolfs papers
    Dates: 1895-1990
    Collection Number: 1997-01
    Creator/Collector:
    Extent: 4.1 linear feet
    Repository: GLBT Historical Society
    San Francisco, California 94103
    Abstract: The Ted Rolfs papers document his life, from his childhood in Wisconsin in the Nineteen-teens until his death in San Francisco in the early 1990s.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Ted Rolfs papers. Collection Number: 1997-01. GLBT Historical Society

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Dan Rolfs on March 25, 1997.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Ted Rolfs papers document his life, from his childhood in Wisconsin in the Nineteen-teens until his death in San Francisco in the early 1990s. Rolfs left Milwaukee in 1929 and hitchhiked to New York. He spent the next 10 years doing art and design and then began working on ships as a cook. He was a lifelong member of, and activist in, the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union. Rolfs spent a few years in Seattle and then settled in San Francisco in 1953, residing here until his death. Rolfs was interviewed by Allan Bérubé for his history of gay men and women in World War II, Coming Out Under Fire, and he appeared in the movie Before Stonewall. The collection consists of correspondence with family and friends, from 1929-1990; notebooks and datebooks; speeches; materials related to his activities with the Marine Cooks and Stewards; financial records; subject files; newsclippings; personalia; audiotaped recordings of family and friends; and photographs that span from the early 1900s to the late 1980s. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008497; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_008536; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000374

    Indexing Terms

    Labor
    World War, 1939-1945
    Gay men