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| Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender Collection |
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- Lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals, and transgender people have contributed
to Maine’s history long before “the birth
of the gay rights movement” in the late 1960s.
In the nineteenth century, for example, people who
might today be identified as lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,
and transgender—”lgbt” to use a
common abbreviation—worked in Maine’s
factories, farms, forest and maritime industries.
Some of the twentieth century’s most notable
artists and writers were lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,
and transgender people who lived and worked in Maine.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, and especially with the
beginning of statewide human rights campaigns in the
1980s, organizations serving the political, cultural,
and social concerns of lgbt people have proliferated.
Diverse lgbt communities have become major elements
in Maine’s cultural and political life. No longer
can the histories of individual lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals, and transgender people, and their communities,
be ignored, misrepresented, or silenced.
The University of Southern Maine Libraries
has established and is developing a broad-based collection
including manuscripts, printed works, visual material,
and artifacts representing the historical and cultural
record of the experience of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,
and transgender people in Maine, and its connections
with the experience of lgbt people regionally and
nationally. It is especially interested in the materials
of groups and organizations involved in political,
social, and cultural issues, as well as the materials
of individuals who have played significant roles in
the political, social, and cultural lives of lgbt
people and their communities in Maine.
In 1997, as an outgrowth of its commitment
to diversity, the University of Southern Maine established
the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine.
The Center is a unit of the University Libraries Special
Collections; one of the Center’s goals is to
collect and preserve primary and secondary historical
materials on the experience of diverse groups in Maine.
The Gay and Lesbian Archives became one of the three
major collections of the new Center. The Sampson Center
will sponsor educational programs and exhibitions
within and beyond the University of Southern Maine
about Maine’s lgbt communities and history;
generate scholarship; and work with other institutions
in reaching the above goals.
The mission of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender Collection is to provide
a repository for the collection and preservation of
a variety of records documenting Maine’s lesbians,
gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people; to emphasize
the importance of such material; arrange and describe
this material making it available to scholars, teachers,
students of all ages, and the general public.
The meetings which led to the creation
of what was first named the Gay and Lesbian Archives
took place in the spring of 1997, under the leadership
of Mark Lapping, then provost of the University of
Southern Maine. Individuals from the University and
the general community worked closely together on the
early planning and development, with faculty, staff,
and students taking major responsibilities. Among
the first donations, in 1998, were the records of
ACT UP/Maine and ACT UP/Portland, and the papers of
William D. Barry and Frances W. Peabody. Other collections
soon followed.
A scholar in residence was appointed
in 2001 to interpret the collection and encourage
research based on its holdings. In 2003, the Gay and
Lesbian Archives was renamed the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender Collection of Maine, more accurately
reflecting its breadth and focus.
The Collection contains a variety
of print, manuscript, and three-dimensional materials.
The majority of the Collection is paper-based, including
manuscripts, books, magazines, posters, and photograph;
there are also popular culture materials, including
political buttons and tee shirts, for example. Much
of the Collection is geographically linked to Maine,
but there are items that are regional and national
in scope.
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