Have you ever wondered what school might have been like if your history classes had been inclusive of LGBT people and culture? Some kids coming of age today may actually get to have that experience, but for most LGBT people, learning about our history is still often a challenging task.
That’s why the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives provides such an invaluable service. ONE Archives 8212 dedicated to fostering acceptance and understanding of gender and sexual diversity by “supporting education and research about our heritage and experience worldwide” and “collecting, preserving, documenting, studying, and communicating our history, our challenges, and our aspirations.” – is the longest surviving LGBT organization in the United States, and the world’s largest archive and research library dedicated to LGBT issues.
An important part of that history includes the representation of LGBT people in popular culture.
As a tribute to those representations, ONE has joined forces with LEX (the Los Angeles-based Lesbian Exploratorium) and on August 16 will unveil a new art piece, “The Lesbian Legacy Wall,” at the event “Our Lives On the Page” at the ONE Archives in Los Angeles.
The Wall is a collage of historic and diverse covers from lesbian publications around the world, spanning six decades, from 1948-2008. The floor-to-ceiling installation was designed by artist Cathy Cade of San Francisco, and the the 60 covers on the wall are only a sample of the range of magazines published in those years, chosen to address many concepts and political issues, and with as much diversity as possible.
Included on The Lesbian Legacy Wall are covers from publications such as Vice Versa, The Ladder, Off Our Backs, Curve, Girlfriends, Lesbian News, Diva, Lez Voz and a screenshot from AfterEllen.com.
The Wall was over a year in the making and was inspired by an existing wall at the ONE Archives, showing covers from the historic ONE Magazine (which focused more on gay male culture).
The idea for it came about when LEX co-founder Jeanne Córdova decided to give her private collection of papers and photos to ONE. Cordova had worked in lesbian publishing for many years (including The Lesbian Tide, 1970-81) and was inspired to propose a wall of lesbian magazines that told the story of how our publications connect us and shape our culture. The “Our Lives On the Page” festivities will also include a poetry performance by acclaimed lesbian author and poet Judy Grahn, and video and slides of historic lesbian events. Also in attendance will be Lisa Ben (an anagram for the word “lesbian”), the woman who anonymously created the first lesbian publication, Vice Versa, in Los Angeles in 1947.
In addition to unveiling of The Lesbian Legacy Wall, the event also celebrates Córdova’s donation of $30,000 to the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives – the largest donation given by a lesbian donor to an LGBT archive. The donation was specifically awarded to ONE to facilitate current archive all holdings of their lesbian feminist collections.
In a press release, Córdova stated, “In this newly energized era of LGBT activism, our younger generations are eager to learn about their heritage that’s not taught in schools. Lesbian history is a critical part of that heritage.”
Lynn Ballen is, along with Córdova, a co-founder of LEX and describes the organization as an independent lesbian cultural “guerilla group” of ten volunteers, all women who are also activists, writers, artists, filmmakers, and archivists. Ballen says that LEX “swoops in wherever we think lesbian culture is needed, and partner up with various community organizations on projects and events that create and support lesbian history, art and culture.”
When asked if she had any particularly memorable archive donation stories, Ballen told us:
“The surviving widow of Dorothy Putnam donated her personal photos albums and scrapbooks to the ONE Archives. Dot had been a Pony Express rider, race car driver, first female chauffeur to the stars, WWII ambulance driver and a stunt woman. Her partner had volunteered at ONE for years but no one knew of Dot’s exciting life story until she passed away and her partner gave the collection to the Archives.“Our Lives on the Page” takes place on August 16, at 2:30 p.m. at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles. For more information, call 213 741-0094 or email [email protected].When we were doing research for the GenderPlay exhibit, we found a postcard in one of Dorothy’s scrapbooks from New Year’s Eve 1942 at a nightclub in Hollywood. That gave us a great visual that we were able to use as part of one of the panels in the GenderPlay exhibit, telling the story of Gladys Bentley, an out lesbian and well-known Harlem nightclub performer during the Harlem Renaissance.
To archivists, personal collections like these can be a really valuable story of a life, and valuable to historians and researchers who are looking for primary source material.”
Anyone interested in donating materials to ONE should contact archivist Loni Shibuyama or Board vice-president Greg Williams at (213) 741-0094 or [email protected] (to make a monetary donation, contact Carole Grosvenor at the same number and email).
