Records of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, an organization that connects people with AIDS (PWA) and volunteer lawyers willing to donate time and expertise in order to assist them. It has been a significant resource for PWA's since its inception....

The Linda Alband collection of Randy Shilts materials documents Shilts’ personal and political work, and dates from 1966-1999. Linda Alband assembled the materials in the collection during Shilts’ life and after his death, working to preserve his legacy.

Randy Alfred was a freelance journalist and radio talk show host in the San Francisco area during the 1970s-1980s. Collection contains research files (clippings, fliers, brochures, correspondence, and notes) and audiotapes--primarily concerning lesbian and gay issues and organizations in San...

This collection contains 20 VHS videocassette tapes of performances from the last month of shows at the Valencia Rose in 1985. The videotapes were recorded by Dirk Alphin, who was operations manager of the Valencia Rose and Josie’s Juice Joint...

Anything That Moves magazine was published by the Bay Area Bisexual Network from 1990-2001. This collection contains original artwork submitted to the magazine, photographs, letters exchanged between artists and editors, and ephemera from the magazine’s offices.

C.D. Arnold was a prolific playwright who often worked with Theatre Rhinoceros. This bulk of the collection consists of draft manuscripts and typescripts of plays; it also contains incoming correspondence, personal journals, photographs, publicity materials, reviews, interviews, and plays by...

The Asian/Pacific AIDS Coalition (APAC) was originally formed as the Asian/Pacific AIDS Task Force in 1987. APAC, like the Black and the Latino Coalitions on AIDS, was part of the second wave of People of Color AIDS groups in San...

Gilbert Baker was an artist, drag queen, and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence who played the central role in the 1978 creation of the rainbow LGBTQ pride flag. Baker’s collection consists largely of textiles, sewing supplies, art, and audiovisual materials, along...

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...

This collection contains the professional and personal papers of Crawford Barton. Barton is best known as a photographer of San Francisco's gay culture in the 1970s. This collection contains numerous photographs, slides and journals from the 1970s.

Lanny Baugniet co-founded Theatre Rhinoceros in 1977 with Allan B. Estes, Jr. The bulk of the material dates from 1977-1979. The collection contains records from the theater, including notes on productions and workshops, press releases, programs, posters, reviews and a...

Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) is a community-based organization founded in 1998. This collection contains operational documents and promotional materials for BAAITS events, photographs, and ephemera from members.

Bill Beardemphl (1926-2002) was a journalist, activist, and chef who is best known for founding the Society for Individual Rights (SIR), a homophile organization, and publishing its magazine Vector. In the 1980s, he was also the owner of the San...

The Allan Bérubé Papers document the personal life, family history and professional work of Allan Ronald Bérubé (1946-2007), a community historian, teacher, author and activist. The collection includes his extensive research files on the topics of gay, lesbian, bisexual and...

Lionel A. Biron (born 1941, known as Biron) is a gay political and union activist, scholar and writer who promoted gay racial inclusiveness from the early 1970s at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and later in San Francisco...

Zane Blaney is a radio journalist, producer, and co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/San Francisco Bay Area (GLAAD/SFBA), a group which advocates for an end to bigotry and misinformation about LGBTQIA+ people in media. The collection consists...

This collection is made up of over 400 VHS and SVHS tapes, including master and duplicate tapes, raw and edited content and multiple and single camera footage; tapes capture many San Francisco and Bay Area LGBT social and recreational events...

The collection documents the work of Dina Boyer, a transgender woman who created a public access television show in San Francisco, CA. The show was run by trans people and documented trans life. The show was broadcast from S.F. Community...

Sound recordings produced and collected by Kevin Burke as a member of the Fruit Punch radio collective at KPFA, Berkeley, California.

The bulk of the collection consists of materials relating to LGBT American Indians, Two-Spirit people and American Indian history collected by activist Randy Burns, co-founder with Barbara Cameron, of Gay American Indians (GAI). The collection includes materials related to Burns,...

Larry Buttwinick (1924-2004) enjoyed drag and was one of the founders of the Lavender Seniors of the Easy Bay. The collection contains photographs, including a scrapbook and photographic snapshots of friends (such as Henry W. Dieckoff) in drag; drag costumes...

Jean-Baptiste Carhaix (1946-2023) was a French photographer. The collection includes portrait photographs of early members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, AIDS activists, and Carhaix's work regarding the Catholic Church.

The Robert Coffman papers document Coffman’s theatrical performances in San Francisco, as well as the life he shared with his partner of over 35 years, Arthur Bamberger. There is a small amount of material related to Coffman’s career as a...

This is an anonymous collection of eight 8mm films taken by an unknown person in the late 1960s. Several of these are set in gay bars in San Francisco's Tenderloin and Polk Street areas.

The collection includes 35mm photographic slides depicting nightlife events, circa 1970-1977, including images of a Sylvester concert and what may be Halloween 1977. The images predominantly depict Black performers and attendees, including people in costumes and drag. These slides were...

This collection consists of 31 black-and-white photographic prints from a scrapbook of “anonymous lesbian photographs” found, according to the donor, in a “Berkeley junk shop in the early 2000s.” The photos span the mid-1940s to the early 1960s, and include...

Raw camera tapes and edited masters produced by Charles Cyberski for his Male Entertainment Network, plus other videotapes he collected.

Denise D’Anne was an activist, environmentalist, civil servant, writer, and candidate for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, as well as a proud trans woman who transitioned in 1968. Her collection is divided into four series: Manuscripts, Photographs, Audiovisual Materials,...

Ms. Bob Davis is a professor of music and sound design, as well as a composer, sound engineer, and owner of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive. This collection contains materials from Davis’ professional and personal life, documents from her service...

The Bruce Decker papers contain materials related to his AIDS advocacy, including his leadership in the No on 64 and No on 102 campaigns, his service on the California AIDS Advisory Committee and his business ventures in the biotechnology field,...

Richard William Evans (1942 January 20-2023 April 26) was a Black, gay artist, community advocate, and participant in the “back-to-the-land” movement in Northern California. As a member of the Stellar Arts Collective, Evans helped to create “The Power of the...

This collection contains materials relating to Finocchio’s, one of the oldest and best-known female impersonation clubs in the world. The collection is arranged into four series: Production Material and Ephemera, Photographs, Garments, and Artifacts.

The Forget-Me-Nots was a small group of gay men from San Francisco who formed an affinity group prior to the 1987 March on Washington in order to perform civil disobedience on the steps of the Supreme Court.

The Linda Garber collection documents lesbian history in the Central Valley and San Francisco through oral histories and the records of Old Wives’ Tales Bookstore. The bulk of the collection consists of interviews from the Central California Lesbian Oral History...

This collection contains administrative records, correspondence, flyers, mass mailings, newsletters, meeting minutes and photographs of activities and members, and audiotapes from the Gay Buddhist Fellowship (GBF). The GBF started in the early 1990s, and these materials span the first decade...

Elsa Gidlow was a lesbian poet, journalist, and woman of letters who in 1923 published the first book of openly lesbian poetry. The collection contains her correspondence, subject files, manuscripts, published works, journals, audiovisual materials, and ephemera.

The GLBT Historical Society collection of LGBTQ art and artifacts encompasses a diverse range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects, including paper materials such as drawings and sketches, architectural plans and banners; metal objects such as pins, buttons, plaques, medallions and...

GLBT Historical Society (GLBTHS) records suggest that GLBTHS board members, volunteers, community donors, and staff brought together this collection of videocassettes, DVDs, video reels, and film reels from the late 1980s through the early 2010s. The collection documents a range...

This is a collection of over 500 oral histories that have been collected by the GLBT Historical Society. The oral histories focus on the LGBT community in the Bay Area and Northern California. This collection contains oral histories that were...

The GLBT Historical Society periodicals collection encompasses queer periodicals and newsletters on a variety of topics.

The GLBT Historical Society collection of LGBTQ posters documents a diverse range of subjects, groups, and events. The posters provide visual and material evidence of the queer community’s engagement with social, cultural, and political dynamics throughout the 20th and 21st...

Efrain John Gonzalez is a bisexual photographer, tour guide, and artist. This collection consists of photographs from queer cultural centers, fliers for the Hellfire Tours, an artist’s notebook, and a flash drive including photographs of various San Francisco Bisexual Conferences.

This collection contains materials collected by Sandy Holmes, who served as secretary to the Bay Area Black Lesbians and Gays (BABLAG) in the mid-1980s.

This collection contains photographs, personal papers, memorabilia, correspondence, and other materials relating to the life of Lorraine Hurdle (1922-2014), a Black lesbian woman. Hurdle served in the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Germany during World War II, and...

Collection of black and white photographic prints and negatives of the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, California. All photographs were taken by Elaine Gay Jarvis.

The Jewish Feminist Conference (JFC) records and audiotapes document the activities of the organizational committees and the responses of JFC participants. The records are divided into two series, Administrative and Workshop documents.

The Kinsey Sicks are a drag a cappella ensemble who bill themselves as “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet.” The collection is arranged into six series: Administrative Records; Production Materials; Press and Publicity; Photographs; Audiovisual and Optical Media; and Textiles, Memorabilia,...

Ginny Knuth (1934-1997) was a cisgender woman who volunteered extensively with San Francisco transgender organizations from 1983 until her death. The collection includes photographs, an oral history, a small amount of biographical information, and a large number of awards and...

This collection contains materials related to the gay liberation movements in the United States and Mexico. John Kyper was a member of the Faggots for Freedom Collective in Roxbury Massachusetts and a frequent contributor to Gay Community News. His collection...

This collection contains 20 years of reel-to-reel audiotapes from several radio programs hosted and/or produced by David Lamble, including Fruit Punch (KPFA), Just Before Dawn (KCHU), Traffic Jam, A Closer Look (KQED) and KGO-FM.

This collection consists of a three photo albums documenting the life Cora Latz and Etta Perkins, an interracial couple, shared together. The two met in 1972 and were together 26 years.

This collection comprises materials, covering half a century beginning in the early 1930's through the early 1980's, of Henri Leleu's life. The scope of the materials include personal papers, documents related to gay cultural events, documents related to Leleu's political...

This collection contains ephemera produced by the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of San Francisco (Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco). Materials include 35mm slides of concert programs, as well as flyers and posters advertising chorus events.

This collection contains six scrapbooks of materials relating to the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of San Francisco. The scrapbooks include photographs, programs, flyers, chorus notes, buttons, ticket stubs, and other ephemera.

This collection contains material from the Lesbian Archives of Sonoma County, documenting the organization’s community activities from 1975-1995. The collection includes documents, CDs, flyers, posters, t-shirts, artwork, photographs, and oral histories. There is a subset within the collection that is...

This collection documents the professional life of Donald (Don) S. Lucas. It contains significant holdings relating to the Mattachine Foundation, the Mattachine Society, Pan-Graphic Press, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, the Society for Individual Rights, and the Economic...

Papers of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin covering their extensive activism in the Homophile, Gay Liberation, Lesbian and Women's Movements. Materials include extensive documentation of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), and the books Lesbian/Woman and Battered Wives.

Lyon-Martin House digital documentation includes one hard drive with images, video, and 3D data related to the Lyon-Martin House. The Lyon-Martin House is a historic site recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is the former home of...

The collection includes oral history recordings and supplemental material for the Lyon-Martin House Oral History Project. Interviewees include: Kendra Mon, Pauline Shulman, Diane McCarney, Kate Kendell, Marcia Gallo, and Margie Adam. This is a born-digital collection and materials include: oral...

Janet “Janny” MacHarg was a political songwriter, cabaret performer, writer, and feminist activist, known as the “Tallulah Bankhead of San Francisco.” Contents include photographs, sheet music, writings, publications, correspondence, drawings, notes, audio cassette tapes, costumes, and other ephemera.

The Maestrapeace Artworks records document the process of creating the mural Maestrapeace on the San Francisco Women’s Building. The collection includes a small amount of correspondence; administrative, financial and legal records; publicity; news clippings; research materials; artwork and architectural designs;...

This collection contains records produced by the Marin County AIDS Advisory Commission (MAAC) and documents one aspect of the county’s official response to AIDS. The collection includes organizational records; correspondence and memos; meeting agendas and minutes for various committees; reports;...

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,...

Camille Moran is a transgender poet and painter, as well as an activist who works against psychiatric abuse of queer and trans youth. This collection includes draft testimony, poetry, a series of satirical notes about her decision to transition, and...

Photographs, scrapbooks, and news clippings of a friend of Ann Dee, Violet Nassos. Ann Dee was owner of Ann's 440 Club in San Francisco and Ann's 151. Ann's 440 Club was one of the first openly lesbian and bi-sexual clubs...

The National Transgender Library and Archive was the project of Dallas Denny, an Atlanta-based activist, writer, and organizer in the transgender community. This collection contains a wide range of transgender material, from popular representations of transgender people, to medical reports,...

This collection is the life's work of filmmaker Harold O'Neal. O'Neal started filming in Southern California in 1939 and continued through the 1980s. His films contain material about a wide variety of subjects on gay and general interest themes.

This collection is from the estate of Jiro Onuma, a Japanese-American man. It includes photographs of Onuma (1904-1990), his friends, and family in the U.S. and in Japan and, notably, a photo of a group of Japanese-Americans (Jiro in the...

“Oral Histories of Transgender People Who Have Given Birth” was a 2022 research project undertaken by University of California, Santa Cruz student Vann Jones, who was Principal Investigator, and advised by Dr. Marcia Ochoa, a faculty member in Feminist Studies...

Robert Pruzan (1946-1992) was a photojournalist, horticulturist, and mime whose vast library of photographs documented the queer history of San Francisco throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The Robert Pruzan Papers are arranged in two groups, Papers and Photographs.

This collection documents the work of Purple Moon Dance Project, which was founded in 1992 by choreographer/dancer Jill Togawa with the goal of promoting visibility for lesbians and women of color through the medium of dance.

Queer Son is a 1993 documentary by Vickie Seitchik, telling the story of families with queer sons and daughters. The collection contains full transcripts of the interviews that went into the film, information on the film's distribution and promotion, film...

Collection contains numerous posters, ephemera, and book covers designed by San Francisco-based queer graphic artist Rex Ray, (September 11, 1956 – February 9, 2015). Many of the works were designed for Bill Graham Presents, dating from the early 1990s to...

Almost all the materials in the Anson Reinhart collection are from the years 1970 to 1972 and consist of gay liberation, gay male consciousness raising, feminist, and lesbian printed materials from a radical/socialist point of view.

Mary Richards was a journalist for the Bay Area Reporter (BAR), a San Francisco-based LGBTQ newspaper, in the 1980s and 1990s. The collection contains over 200 audiotapes of interviews Richards conducted with queer people on a wide range of topics....

These files contain the research and notes of journalist Sue Rochman on HIV/AIDS and prison populations. Materials include correspondence from prisoners and prison activists, published articles, reports by government agencies and non-profit organizations, and handwritten notes from interviews, conversations, and...

This collection contains papers from scholar and activist Will Roscoe and records from Gay American Indians (GAI), the first gay American Indian liberation organization, founded in July 1975. The collection is divided into two Series: the Will Roscoe papers and...

The Rossmoor Lesbian Social Club (RLSC) is a club in the Rossmoor senior community in Walnut Creek, California. The club was founded in 2009 by Carol Morton with a mission of providing social activities for Rossmoor residents who identify as...

The Arcaids Theatre was a theatre troupe composed entirely of people with AIDS and what was then called ARC (AIDS-Related Complex, referring to the broad spectrum of AIDS-related symptoms and opportunistic infections). Arcaids was founded in 1988 by Wendy Rouder,...

Audiovisual recordings of oral history interviews with 23 San Francisco Bay Area activists discussing the history of ACT UP/San Francisco and other AIDS direct-action groups in the city. Interviews were conducted by the GLBT Historical Society in 2017-2018.

Material related to San Francisco FrontRunners, an LGBTQ+ running and walking club.

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is the world’s first openly gay men’s chorus. The collection is arranged into seven series including: Administrative Records; Membership and Production Materials; Publicity and Awards; Photographs; Audiovisual Materials; Textiles and Memorabilia; and SFGMC Scans...

Consists of a wide range of ephemera related to LGBT communities in San Francisco and the Bay Area, representing a diverse collection of subjects, ranging from AIDS, bathhouses, city agencies and sex clubs, to collections of catalogs and directories. Much...

This collection represents the history of the San Francisco Women's Building/Women's Centers from 1972 to 2001. It provides a comprehensive look at the second wave of the Feminist Movement in San Francisco at that time - the Women, the Ideals,...

This collection contains the professional and personal papers of Maria Sanchez, a popular DJ active in San Francisco bathhouse and disco communities. Contents include ¼” audio tape, photographs, zines, and other ephemera.

The José Sarria Papers include biographical material, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, artifacts and costumes documenting his career as an entertainer and activist in San Francisco over more than half a century.

This collection contains materials produced by the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps and collected by Steve Scholl. Materials include directories, band notes, programs, bylaws, flyers, posters, photographs, scrapbooks, and other ephemera. It also contains flyers...

Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria is a documentary film directed by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker. The collection contains production materials from the film, as well as full recordings of the oral histories which are excerpted in the...

The records of Shanti document the organizational history and work of an agency dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening or chronic illnesses. There are a wide range of record types in...

The collection includes two audio cassette tape recordings of a 1977 Sissy Poetry reading at the LGBT community center at 32 Page Street in San Francisco, California.

This collection contains 109 hours, or almost 100 ½-inch EIAJ-1 open reel tapes, recorded by the early gay video production group Queer Blue Light. Subjects range from politics to culture.

Louis Graydon Sullivan (1951-1991) was a gay and transgender activist who was notable as a community organizer, lay historian, and particularly as a diarist. Sullivan’s papers include extensive diaries, short stories, poems, essays, correspondence, and photographs which intimately document his...

Sylvester (born Sylvester James Jr.) was a disco-soul singer-songwriter known for his androgynous appearance, falsetto singing voice, and the moniker the “Queen of Disco.” The collection is arranged into four series: Photographs, Publicity and Event Materials, Audiovisual Materials, and Garments...

This collection contains papers from activist Michael James (M.J.) Talbot, one of the founders of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA) and its AIDS service organization, GAPA Community HIV Project (GPHC). The collection includes GAPA and GPHC correspondence, flyers, meeting...

Beowulf Thorne (Jack Henry Foster) was a political activist on issues affecting PWAs (people with AIDS). He was one of the founders, with Tom Shearer, of the humor magazine, Diseased Pariah News (DPN). He used his skills as a writer,...

Thrillpeddlers was a San Francisco-based multigenerational queer theater company specializing in Grand Guignol plays and Theatre of the Ridiculous. The collection is arranged into four series: Production and Hypnodrome Theatre Materials, Photographs, Garments and Props, and Set Pieces and Signs.

A CD-ROM featuring TransGender Forum website content dating from April 1995 to December 1998. TransGender Forum was a website that sought to provide "up to the minute news, accurate resource information, and a selection of member services" for the transgender...

TransGender San Francisco is a longstanding organization which provides peer support for transgender and gender nonconforming people, as well as educating the public about trans issues. The collection includes various organizational materials, publications, and scrapbooks of articles and clippings.

Photographs from Marie Ueda of gay events during the 1970's to 1990's. Photos of Harvey Milk, Pride Parades, White Night Riots, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, AIDS and other LGBT events.

Photographs of Vanguard's 1966 Street Sweep demonstration in San Francisco. Vanguard was an organization of LGBTQ youth and others living on the streets of the Tenderloin district in San Francisco. The Street Sweep was organized to demonstrate their commitment to...

This collection contains research files and oral histories from Nan Alamilla Boyd’s groundbreaking history of queer San Francisco to 1965, “Wide Open Town.” Highlights of the collection include audiotapes of 41 separate interviews, some with transcripts; and photographs and archival...

Chana Wilson is an author, storyteller, and former radio host who was involved with three lesbian radio shows between 1973 and 1982: Lesbian Air (collectively produced), Radio Free Lesbian (collectively produced and/or produced by Wilson), and A World Wind (produced...