Research Guides
History : LGBTQ: Primary Sources
A research guide to primary and secondary sources for LGBTQ history.
Primary sources are the evidence of history. They are the first-hand accounts of an event or period of time created by participants or observers. Primary sources include texts (e.g., letters, government reports, newspaper accounts), images (e.g., photographs, paintings, posters), artifacts (e.g., buildings, sculpture, coins) and audio/visual (e.g., songs, oral history interviews, films).
Major Collections
- Archives of Sexuality & Gender: Parts I - IV This link opens in a new windowArticles, reports & manuscript material illustrating LGBTQ history and culture since 1940; includes local, national & international newspapers.
- LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowLGBTQ magazines from the US, UK and France including the Advocate (1967-2015), Arcadie (1954-1980) & AXM (1997-2008).
- LGBT Studies This link opens in a new windowComprised of LGBT Studies in Video & LGBT Thought and Culture; includes films, magazines, books & manuscript material.
- LGBTQ+ RightsLaw collection includes Congressional hearings, scholarly & law journal articles, Supreme Court briefs & more. Topical collections include AIDS, marriage, employment & more. Part of HeinOnline.
- Queer Pasts This link opens in a new windowGrowing collection of primary source exhibits on topics such as The City Nightclub: A Community of Queer Youth in Portland, Oregon, 1977-1997 & AIDS Knows No Borders: Protesting the US Ban on HIV-Positive Migrants, 1990-1993.
Primary Source Collections
These sites include various collections of primary sources including images, organizational records and publications. Many are regionally focused.
Oral Histories
Many of the Primary Source Collections listed on the right also include oral histories.
LGBTQ Newspapers & Magazines
The Archives of Human Sexuality & Identity includes hundreds of newspapers from the US and elsewhere. For coverage in mainstream newspapers & magazines see the primary source sections of the various regional history guides. For additional PNW LGBT newspapers and magazines at the UW Libraries see Northwest GLBT Journals & other Serial Publications.