GLBT: Special Collections & Archival Resources: Archives

Search for more collections!

• Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project oral histories. Accession 5929-001. An oral history collection of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual narrators focusing on the conditions the narrators experienced before the activist period, the early homophile movement in Seattle, the founding or early days of activist and service organizations, and ongoing activism since those times.
• Tim Mayhew Collection on Gay Rights. Accession 4440. A Seattle-area gay rights activist since the 1970s, Tim Mayhew has collected archival materials from a number of community and civil rights organizations.
• Geraldine V. Cole papers. Accession 5837 Geraldine V. Cole was a founding member of the Seattle based Lesbian Mothers National Defense Fund in the 1970s.
• Alice B. Theatre Records. Accession 4199. Alice B. Theatre was a theater ensemble that featured works by gay and lesbian playwrights. Founded in connection to Seattle's Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, it officially closed in 1997.
• LGBT Northwest serials and related ephemera collection. Accession 5792 Compiled by Alvin Fritz, former librarian for UW Libraries' Gay and Lesbian Studies. Fritz collected these Northwest lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender materials from organizations, groups, and other collectors. Titles with more complete runs were cataloged in the library online catalog.
• Gay and Lesbian Issues Collection. Accession 4511. Materials collected by a freelance author on religious conservative organizations and gay and lesbian organizations, with emphasis on anti-gay initiatives in Washington and Oregon, including Oregon's Measure 9.
• John M. Eccles Papers. Accession 4517-001. Born in Buckley, Washington, John Eccles was active in the Los Angeles Mattachine Society during the 1960s.
• Jody Aliesan Papers. Accession 2272. Jody Aliesan was an activist in the Seattle feminist movement and participated in numerous social justice and civil rights projects throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. In 1978, she was a member of the steering committee for the Citizens to Retain Fair Employment, an organization formed to defeat Initiative 13 which would have allowed discrimination in Seattle on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Young Women’s Christian Association (University of Washington). Accession 1930. Materials relating to the history and operation of the University of Washington YWCA, including program files for the Lesbian Resource Center.
• Charna Klein Papers. Accession 5090. Charna Klein is a gay rights activist and psychological anthropologist who has done extensive research into gay and lesbian counseling services and the lesbian/gay mental health movement. She is a founding member of Congregation Tikvah Chadashah, a GLBTQ Jewish congregation in the Puget Sound area.
• Charles J. Harbaugh Papers. Accession 4590-001. A Seattle-area therapist, Charles James Harbaugh was active in gay health issues during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s and served on the boards of many GLBTQ health organizations, including the Northwest AIDS Foundation, the Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities, and the Seattle Treatment Exchange Program. He was a founding member of the Gay Community Center in Seattle, the Dorian Group, and Rainbow.
• Charles J. Harbaugh Erotica Collections, circa 1950s-1990s. Accession 4590-002.  Harbaugh's collection of erotic magazines, literature, and motion pictures.  Most are American publication with a few British and European titles.  The collection consists of 36 boxes and is arranged alphabetically - index is included in online finding aid.
• Dorian Group Records. Accession 5074. The Dorian Group is a Seattle gay rights organization that focuses on public education and legal reform. Materials relate primarily to trustee Robert Wood's service on the Dorian Group's Board of Trustees and Membership Committee.
• Margaret Anderson Papers. Accession 3753-001. Oral history of Margaret Anderson, a lesbian, reformed alcoholic, and social worker. Part of the Washington Women's Heritage Project.
• Nikki Dawn Phillips Papers. Accession 3750-001. Oral history of Nikki Dawn Phillips, a transsexual who underwent gender surgery in 1979. Part of the Washington Women's Heritage Project.
• Stan Henry Papers. Accession 5558-001. A social worker, activist, and author, Stan Henry was heavily involved in the Seattle and San Francisco literary communities during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1983, he co-founded the Seattle AIDS Support Group (SASG) with Josh Joshua and Ann McCaffray.
• Stephen R. Blair Papers. Accession 5172-001. Stephen Blair, discharged from the military in 1936 on suspicion of homosexuality, had a decade-spanning theater career, performing in the USO, the Seattle Men's Chorus, and Alice B. Theatre ensemble. He and his partner Frank McCormick were also involved with the National Union of Marine Cooks and Sewards (NUMCS), known for its early integration of African American and gay members.
• Lesbian Gay Freedom Committee. Accession 4468-1. 
• Thomas William Monnahan Papers. Accession 5231-001. Thomas Monnahan served as an assistant to a member of the Seattle City Council. His papers include a wedding invitation and program for a ceremony at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, celebrating the union of Monnahan and his partner, James Arthur Black.
• Mark Dempsey Papers. Accession 5076-001. An actor and theater researcher, Mark Dempsey performed in regional theaters in New York, Pennsylvania, and California and attended the University of Washington's School of Drama from 1956 to 1959. His mother, his aunt Rosalie Sipp (aka Irma Beatrice Hall), and grandmother Jessie Hall all had ties to the Seattle vaudeville theater during the period 1922-1932.
• Seattle Women's Ensemble Records. Accession 5257-001. The Seattle Women's Ensemble, a feminist choral group founded in 1980, performed culturally diverse music that often focused on women's issues. SWE was actively supported by Seattle's lesbian and feminist communities during the 1980s and 90s.
• Don Paulson Papers. Accession 5354-001. Don Paulson was a Seattle-area author and artist and a member of Black and White Men Together, a gay interracial organization. His papers include extensive research materials on female impersonators, notably those who performed at the Seattle cabaret, the Garden of Allah, in the 1950s.
• Seattle Gay Clinic Records. Accession 5552-001. Founded in 1979, the Seattle Gay Clinic (SGC) provided primary care and patient education to gay men. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, SGC developed new ways to assist patients diagnosed with AIDS, establishing the Chicken Soup Brigade and the Northwest AIDS Foundation. Both would go on to become independent organizations.
• Bailey-Boushay House Records. Accession 5567-001. Bailey-Boushay House opened in 1992, offering residential care and chronic care management for people living with AIDS. Records include correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, newspaper clippings, and DVDs.
• Hands Off Washington, Kitsap County Coalition Records. Accession 5335-001. Hands Off Washington was a program of Washington Citizens for Fairness, a not-for-profit political organizing committee formed in 1992 to defeat anti-gay legislation within Washington State. Records include correspondence, minutes, publicity materials, and ephemera relating to the Kitsap County regional division of HOW.
• Pride Foundation Ephemera Collection. Accession 5664-001. Contains materials relating to organizations and programs supported by the Pride Foundation, including AIDS Housing of Washington, Alice B. Theatre, Chicken Soup Brigade, Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project, PFLAG, Queer Film Festival, Safe Schools, and others.
• Sandy Nelson Defense Committee records, 1997. Accession 6084-001. Records related to Nelson's case against the Tacoma News Tribune, which went before the Washington State Supreme Court in 1997.  Nelson lost her case when the court ruled that journalists are exempt from the Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who engage in off-duty political activities.

Pamphlet for the Gay Women's Resource Center, 1971. Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection. VTN151.

Man wearing "Equal Rights Amendment" t-shirt during Gay Pride Week at the Seattle Center, 1974. Modern Photographers Collection. MPH1471.

Female impersonator Paris Delair with two soldiers at the Garden of Allah, ca. 1948. Society and Culture Collection. SOC1310.