April 22, 2015.
Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library and Archives has planned an exhibit of its LGBT collection.
The movement/community should thank TAMU for preserving and using our history.
I hope that news of the acquiring of the collection will be sent to the organizations for archivists, historians, etc? I would think Texas Monthly, etc, would want to mention it. It is time general publications like Time, The Nation, etc, have an article on the LGBT libraries and archives.
I think it is worth discussing how our material is being handled by the libraries early leaders worried about-public/college libraries. We feared politicians would try to hide the material, choose to delete some they didn’t like, and even some librarians might not b e comfortable with allowing the material to be displayed,etc. But costs make it hard for private groups to maintain material safely-climate control, etc.
The librarians at Texas A&M deserve credit for producing a brochure describing its collection-a great historical document itself. If other university libraries have done such a brochure and display, I would like to know it, as it should be listed some place.
The brochure/program alone is worth all LGBT libraries having — it has mention and pictures of rare early publications.
The “story” of collecting the material and understanding its value can be useful to get other universities to learn the importance (and honor) of having the resources covering this major effort to gain equal rights for homosexual Americans.
My concern is that, as far as I know, there is little or no cooperation among our libraries/archives. And less mention of them in the LGBT media.
