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Jess Jessop
incorporated the Lesbian and Gay Historical Society
of San Diego (now Lambda Archives of San Diego) in 1987, starting
the collection with materials that he and
Doug Moore had gathered
earlier. Lambda Archives
is one of the larger collections
of LGBT history in the
country.
Lambda Archives of San Diego (LASD) is
an all-volunteer,
nonprofit 501(c)(3)
corporation governed by a
volunteer Board of Directors.
The Board holds regular
monthly meetings open to all members. Call 619-260-1522 to confirm meeting dates and times.
Click here for a complete list of our
volunteer
Directors, Departments and Project Leaders.
Mission ...
T he
mission of the
Lambda Archives of San Diego (LASD) is to collect,
preserve,
and teach the history of lesbian,
gay,
bisexual,
and transgender people in the San Diego and Northern Baja California
region.
Although most of the collections date to post-1970,
there are
original materials
dating back to the
1930s.
History is best served
by
the records and
cultural artifacts
of those people who
are
directly
involved in its events.
Lambda Archives
(founded
as
the Lesbian
and
Gay
Archives
of San Diego) has
dedicated
itself to preserving
and interpreting this
important
historical record.
Collecting ...
La mbda
Archives of San Diego
views
all aspects of LGBT life
as important
to
the understanding
of our communities'
values,
interests and
issues.
To
this
end, LASD
actively
seeks to acquire and preserve materials
that
reflect the diversity of our communities in respect to: gender and
sexual identity; racial and ethnic identity; age; and the broad
range of our communities'
activities
and concerns including politics
and social activism,
social groups,
support groups,
athletics,
spiritual groups,
arts and culture, business and finance,
and general community resources.
LASD collects not only material related to the
communities'
past history,
but documents current events as well
(such as a
vast new collection of "No
on 8"
protest signs).
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Preserving
...
As they are p rocessed,
collections are transferred to special
acid-free
archival file folders and boxes and the Archives'
facility is maintained at low
temperature and humidity levels.
When necessary,
further steps are
taken to
ensure the long-term survival
of the individual
items. For any
given collection
the supply costs for preservation
range from
around $10
to hundreds of dollars depending on the collection's
size and types of materials.
Recently,
with the help of a veritable
army of student volunteers,
we have been able to process
a huge amount
of new and backlogged material.
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Teaching ...
Far fro m
a mere
storage
facility,
LASD's collections are alive with
constant
usage
for the purposes
of educating
and empowering
the local
community and providing
sources for researchers. Lambda Archives has a thriving
student
volunteer program, in collaboration
with San Diego State
University
with more than 60 volunteers
this semester
alone!
Local college students including UCSD and Point Loma Nazarene
students are also making increasing use of the materials for
research.
LASD provides extensive educational displays and exhibits for the
San Diego Pride Festival, the San Diego Public Library, local colleges
and universities and other community organizations.
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What is in the Archives?
Lambda
Archives preserves and makes
available the tangible record of the community
including the personal documentation
of individuals who have lived, worked
and been active members of our communities,
and the organizational records of business,
community and service groups that
have served our needs
and interests.
LASD's
collections
include:
-
Perhaps most
significant are the collections of original
and unique records and personal
papers of local LGBT
activists,
organizations
and political campaigns
including the records of the first openly gay person to run for
public office in San Diego,
and the records from campaigns
to stop
homophobic
ballot
initiatives,
from "No on 6"
in 1978
to "No
on 8" in
2008.
Large collections include
the records of Update, Dignity San Diego,
and Doug Moore's
records of San Diego Pride.
-
LASD houses complete or
nearly
complete runs of virtually
all
San Diego
and Tijuana
(and some significant regional
or national) LGBT periodicals, most of which are not available
elsewhere and some of which may have not survived outside LASD's
facilities.
-
Newsletters for more than
40 local
LGBT organizations
(AIDS, art, sports,
business,
women's
Latino,
Asian,
Native American, religious, service,
social,
transgender,
bisexual,
leather and other interests)
demonstrate the diversity of
the region's
LGBT community.
-
Ephemera (materials that are produced to be
discarded
when an event is
over)
are a
valuable
and
evocative
source of information
about any time period. LASD's
collections
include
flyers,
announcements,
bumper stickers,
buttons, calendars,
catalogues, flyers,
posters, hundreds of t-shirts,
and more!
-
The audio-visual
collection
includes numerous video
& tape interviews, LGBT music,
educational films,
and footage
of numerous Pride parades.
-
There is an extensive
collection of thousands
of photographs and slides.
-
A new ongoing
collection
of digital materials,
including
more
than
a thousand
emails,
plus digital
photos, website captures,
and other digital
records.
-
The research
library
contains
more
than 2,000
titles including
non-fiction,
fiction,
biographies,
and pulp fiction,
which members can now check out!
Most
exciting,
with
the help of the
Human Dignity
Foundation,
the Foundation
for Change,
and you, our
members and supporters,
more and more
of the collection is catalogued and searchable on line.
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