New archives at William & Mary library will tell the LGBTQ story
WILLIAMSBURG — A new archive collection has been established at the College of William & Mary that focuses on American LGBTQ political and legal history.
The archive is being created in memory of renowned historian John Boswell, a 1969 graduate who became a leading authority on religion and homosexuality before his death in 1994. One of the academic buildings at William & Mary was renamed in his honor last year.
Former college rector Jeff Trammell, the first openly gay board chairman of a major public university, was instrumental in helping establish the archive after he learned of two friends “who had tens of thousands of papers on the gay-lesbian movement.”
“They had amassed amazing files of legal and political papers on governmental action through the years,” Trammell said. “They were looking for broader exposure. I told them I know of an institution where they could go … and I reached out to Swem Library at the college and they were extremely interested.”
The collectors were Pate Felts and Charles Francis, co-founders of the Mattachine Collection of LGBTQ material and officers at the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., of which Trammell was an advisory board member.
“We are thrilled to establish this new archives at Swem Library,” Carrie Cooper, dean of University Libraries at William & Mary, said in announcing the archive. “There are many fabulous collections of LGBTQ historical materials in libraries across the country, but this archive will have a unique focus on the political and legal architecture of the movement.”
According to Trammell, the University of Southern California has a large and distinguished collection on the “culture and commerce” of the LGBTQ movement, while W&M will focus on the “political and legal history of the last couple of generations.” As people learn of the collection and its availability, “more materials will be forth coming,” Trammell said.
Initially, Cooper said the new archives will include two compilations, the Mattachine Collection and the personal collection of Trammell’s.
“Along with Charles Francis, we have been collecting material for 10-years plus,” explained Felts. “It’s chiefly electronic material from three websites we have maintained that include videos we have produced, news articles that Swem Library will be harvesting.”
The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., was reorganized by Felts and Francis and repurposed as a mission “to uncover deleted and hidden, gay and lesbian political history,” Felts added. “We rolled up our sleeves and went through the national archives, presidential archives, university libraries and museum collections. We dug into papers that had not been looked at from a gay or homosexual perspective.”
“These are the kind of materials we’re donating to
William & Mary. We were searching for a broader network.”
Felts said that hopefully the new archives will attract others to donate their papers. “Maybe political appointees who were somehow involved in the legislative and judicial branches of government will become involved. This will tell the story of LGBTQ.”
Jay Gaidmore, director of Swem’s Special Collections Research Center, said the new archives will be an important addition. “Some of the material on web sites can be transferred almost right away,” he said. “Other data may take some time, but the digital forms can be preserved rather quickly.”
Trammell said that an endowment for the archives will be developed through fundraising. “We also have already contributed funds,” he said.
Gaidmore added that the library has preservation funds available and staffing that will help process the material.