News
Library Collection Comes "Out" for Milestone
The Portland State University Branford P. Millar Library is preparing to host a traveling panel exhibition culled from the archives of the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library. The Out at the Library exhibit will offer a rare look into the Hormel Center collection, demonstrating what archives are and how they ensure the legacy of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities. Reproductions of historic photographs, documents and objects drawn from the archives offer compelling views of both remarkable and ordinary lives, attributes of character, heroic actions, explosions of genius, cautionary tales, and private worlds. The exhibit will be on display at the Branford P. Millar Library from December 1 to December 31.
The exhibition begins with Dr. Mary Walker's leather boots. Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army, a humanitarian, and an early advocate for women's rights, including dress reform. During the Civil War, she risked her life while caring for the sick and wounded. The boots, a gelatin silver photograph of Walker (c. 1863), and a 1969 newspaper clipping evoke the history and presence of this unique 19th-century figure.
Considered the world's first gay periodical, Der Eigene ("The Self-Owners"), began as a German anarchist journal. Published by Adolf Brand from 1896 to 1931, Der Eigene became the voice of a small movement that advocated Classical Greek pederasty -- highly ritualized sexual relationships between men and boys -- as a cure for what some saw as the alarming effeminacy of German culture. The Hormel Center archives contain volume six of Der Eigene, which includes some of the earliest material on gay life in San Francisco.
In addition to Der Eigene, the exhibit also includes a more contemporary periodicals section, which focuses on the significance and diversity of voices as expressed in the Center's rich periodical holdings including One Magazine, The Ladder, Transgender Tapestry, Anything that Moves, Black Lesbian Journal, and many more. A section focused on One Magazine and Harry Hay demonstrates the ongoing impact of Hay's founding of the early homophile Mattachine Society in the 1950s and the Radical Faeries in the 1970s.
A lively collection of pulp paperback covers, with titles such as Warped Desire, Giovanni's Room, and The Gay Year makes tangible the scale, scope, and legacy of these materials. Related materials presented in the exhibition include pseudonyms used by LGBT authors and activists and correspondence between Barbara Grier, founder of Naiad Press (the longest-running lesbian publishing house), and Patricia Highsmith (of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame) who wrote under the pseudonym Claire Morgan in the 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, considered to be the first lesbian novel with a happy ending.
Evander Smith's California Hall files document the watershed moment that united San Francisco's homophile organizations into an active political force. This San Francisco event took place on January 1, 1965, four years before New York's Stonewall riots. Out at the Library presents key selections from the file, as well as an image of the archives file itself.
San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was an individual whose personal life shaped his professional career. His drive to represent a group of people who had been silenced and ignored made him a figure of national and international standing. Milk became a visible symbol of the LGBT community's emergence as a political force. It is no wonder, then, that the grief caused by the assassinations of Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White united the LGBT community as never before. Presented in Out at the Library are photographs of Milk, one of his hand-edited speeches, and his 1978 appointment book, open to the week of his assassination.
Along with ACT UP stickers and other Queer Nation political materials, the subject of AIDS is covered in the exhibition through striking scrapbooks kept by San Francisco General Hospital from the period of 1983-2003. The scrapbooks include the most mundane of nurse records and touching personal accounts, artwork, and photos of patients.
In addition to the materials mentioned here, the exhibit includes photographs of gay and lesbian poets and artists, correspondence and publications of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Gay Games medals and posters, and countless other stories from gay and lesbian history.
The original exhibition, on which this traveling version is based, enjoyed record-breaking attendance at the San Francisco Public Library prior to beginning its national tour. The Branford P. Millar Library is one of several stops on the tour of U.S. libraries and community centers. At a time when the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities are often simultaneously making and interpreting their own histories, Out at the Library will help viewers imagine the endless connections implicit among past and future LGBT people.
This event is free and open to the public. Media inquiries should be directed to Kerri Griesbeck at 503-725-8794 or kgries@pdx.edu.
A variety of photos are available upon request, as well as interviews with the curator and organizers of the exhibition. Please contact Kimberly Willson-St. Clair at 503.725.4552 or willsons@pdx.edu for more information.
Portland State University Library
At the heart of an engaged university, the Portland State University Library supports the information, research, teaching and learning needs for more than 1,800 faculty members and 26,000 students at Portland State, covering 125 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees as well as graduate certificates and continuing education programs. The Portland State Library has over 1.4 million volumes, subscribes to almost 19,000 journals with access to over 45,600 electronic journals and over 32,000 electronic books. In addition, Portland State Library is a collaborative regional depository for federal documents and a member of the Portals and Orbis/Cascade Alliance library consortia, collaborating with other libraries to serve the region and scholarly community at large.
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#08-081)
Source: Kimberly Willson-St. Clair (503-725-4552)
PSU Library
The exhibition begins with Dr. Mary Walker's leather boots. Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army, a humanitarian, and an early advocate for women's rights, including dress reform. During the Civil War, she risked her life while caring for the sick and wounded. The boots, a gelatin silver photograph of Walker (c. 1863), and a 1969 newspaper clipping evoke the history and presence of this unique 19th-century figure.
Considered the world's first gay periodical, Der Eigene ("The Self-Owners"), began as a German anarchist journal. Published by Adolf Brand from 1896 to 1931, Der Eigene became the voice of a small movement that advocated Classical Greek pederasty -- highly ritualized sexual relationships between men and boys -- as a cure for what some saw as the alarming effeminacy of German culture. The Hormel Center archives contain volume six of Der Eigene, which includes some of the earliest material on gay life in San Francisco.
In addition to Der Eigene, the exhibit also includes a more contemporary periodicals section, which focuses on the significance and diversity of voices as expressed in the Center's rich periodical holdings including One Magazine, The Ladder, Transgender Tapestry, Anything that Moves, Black Lesbian Journal, and many more. A section focused on One Magazine and Harry Hay demonstrates the ongoing impact of Hay's founding of the early homophile Mattachine Society in the 1950s and the Radical Faeries in the 1970s.
A lively collection of pulp paperback covers, with titles such as Warped Desire, Giovanni's Room, and The Gay Year makes tangible the scale, scope, and legacy of these materials. Related materials presented in the exhibition include pseudonyms used by LGBT authors and activists and correspondence between Barbara Grier, founder of Naiad Press (the longest-running lesbian publishing house), and Patricia Highsmith (of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame) who wrote under the pseudonym Claire Morgan in the 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, considered to be the first lesbian novel with a happy ending.
Evander Smith's California Hall files document the watershed moment that united San Francisco's homophile organizations into an active political force. This San Francisco event took place on January 1, 1965, four years before New York's Stonewall riots. Out at the Library presents key selections from the file, as well as an image of the archives file itself.
San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was an individual whose personal life shaped his professional career. His drive to represent a group of people who had been silenced and ignored made him a figure of national and international standing. Milk became a visible symbol of the LGBT community's emergence as a political force. It is no wonder, then, that the grief caused by the assassinations of Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White united the LGBT community as never before. Presented in Out at the Library are photographs of Milk, one of his hand-edited speeches, and his 1978 appointment book, open to the week of his assassination.
Along with ACT UP stickers and other Queer Nation political materials, the subject of AIDS is covered in the exhibition through striking scrapbooks kept by San Francisco General Hospital from the period of 1983-2003. The scrapbooks include the most mundane of nurse records and touching personal accounts, artwork, and photos of patients.
In addition to the materials mentioned here, the exhibit includes photographs of gay and lesbian poets and artists, correspondence and publications of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Gay Games medals and posters, and countless other stories from gay and lesbian history.
The original exhibition, on which this traveling version is based, enjoyed record-breaking attendance at the San Francisco Public Library prior to beginning its national tour. The Branford P. Millar Library is one of several stops on the tour of U.S. libraries and community centers. At a time when the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities are often simultaneously making and interpreting their own histories, Out at the Library will help viewers imagine the endless connections implicit among past and future LGBT people.
This event is free and open to the public. Media inquiries should be directed to Kerri Griesbeck at 503-725-8794 or kgries@pdx.edu.
A variety of photos are available upon request, as well as interviews with the curator and organizers of the exhibition. Please contact Kimberly Willson-St. Clair at 503.725.4552 or willsons@pdx.edu for more information.
Portland State University Library
At the heart of an engaged university, the Portland State University Library supports the information, research, teaching and learning needs for more than 1,800 faculty members and 26,000 students at Portland State, covering 125 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees as well as graduate certificates and continuing education programs. The Portland State Library has over 1.4 million volumes, subscribes to almost 19,000 journals with access to over 45,600 electronic journals and over 32,000 electronic books. In addition, Portland State Library is a collaborative regional depository for federal documents and a member of the Portals and Orbis/Cascade Alliance library consortia, collaborating with other libraries to serve the region and scholarly community at large.
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#08-081)
Source: Kimberly Willson-St. Clair (503-725-4552)
PSU Library
