Ted Rolfs papers
Finding aid created by GLBT Historical Society staff using RecordEXPRESS
GLBT Historical Society
2023
989 Market Street, Lower Level
San Francisco, California 94103
(415) 777-5455
reference@glbthistory.org
http://www.glbthistory.org/
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
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item]. Ted Rolfs papers. Collection Number: 1997-01. GLBT Historical Society
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
Labor
World War, 1939-1945
Gay men