Browse Items (55 total)

Michael Riegle, journalist, gay liberationist and prisoner rights activist, was born in 1943 in Gary, Indiana. The son of a steel mill worker, he attended Knox College where he received his Bachelors Degree; he later received his Doctorate in the…

David Scondras was born on January 5, 1946 in Lowell, Massachusetts to first generation Greek- American parents, George and Dorothy. After graduating with honors from Lowell High School, David attended Harvard University where he received his…

The AIDS Ephemera Collection consists of materials gathered over time by various members of The History Project, including board member Elizabeth Bouvier. Designed to the eyecatching advertisements for AIDS awareness events, these items were given…

The materials in this collection – compiled by Boston-based activist Sarah Holmes – document the work of several national and local (to Boston, Massachusetts) lesbian and gay rights groups from 1977 to 1993, with the bulk of the materials pertaining…

The Boston Pride Collection consists of papers (some originals and some photocopies), photographs, and ephemera from 1970 to 2008 related to the Boston Pride March and Rally, as well as materials from various celebrations and events during Pride…

The variety of materials in this collection speak to the long tradition of activism around the rights and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in Massachusetts, and attest to changing societal attitudes both across the state…

Boston Lesbian and Gays Against the Right (BLAGMAR) and its parent organization, Lavender Resistance, were groups formed in the last half of the 1970s to negotiate between issues relating to the LGBT community and the concerns of leftist politics.…

The Homophile Union of Boston grew out of the Boston chapter of the Mattachine Society and was founded in late 1969 or early 1970. The organization’s leadership was male, but there were also women members. The purpose of HUB was to provide a space…

The Student Homophile League was a self-described “service group organizing social and political action for the college age community” and was active between 1969 and 1980. First organized by MIT student Stan Tillotson in 1969, the organization…

The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) was a lesbian organization founded in 1955 in San Francisco by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon for the purpose of self-knowledge and self-acceptance, public education, involvement in research, and lobbying to change the…

Published sporadically from 1971 to 1987, Fag Rag was a leading venue for discussions (and oftentimes explicit depictions) of gay male sexuality, gay liberation politics, literature, and history. This collection includes a full run of Fag Rag,…

Laura McMurry was born in Troy, New York, and grew up in Oklahoma and Idaho, before receiving her undergraduate degree at Reed College in Oregon. She moved to Boston in the mid-sixties to join Harvard’s graduate program in biology, receiving her…

David Peterson came from a conservative family in Indiana. In 1965 Peterson came to the Boston area to attend MIT. One of the first organizations he became involved with was the Homophile Union of Boston (HUB). It was in those years he became friends…

The collection chronicles the lives of Albert Wakefield and Marshall Belmaine from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. There is military information about the service records of both men. Al Wakefield served in Vietnam and was decorated for service. Military…

Rev. Robert P. Wheatly, b. 1919 d. October 31, 2002, was a Gay Unitarian Universalist Minister and social justice pioneer who lived and worked in Massachusetts from 1949 until his death in 2002. He moved to the Boston area to attend Harvard Divinity…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

The Beantown Bowling League began in 1986 and is still in existence today. The documents in the collection cover their early years as an organization from 1987-1992 and show the wide array of tournaments the group participated in, in addition to…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

Historically in Massachusetts, and in other states, attempts by same-sex couples to apply for and receive marriage licenses were met with refusals by public officials to grant a license to same-sex couples.

As a response to those attempts a…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

The Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth (GCGLY) was created by executive order on February 10, 1992 by Governor William Weld, in an effort to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth community. The Commission was…

Dignity Boston was founded in 1972 as a local chapter of Dignity/USA, which started in Los Angeles in 1969, first as a counseling group, then a support group for LGBTQ Catholics. Dignity/USA has been a national independent nonprofit organization…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

Attorney John Ward founded the non-profit legal rights organization, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) in 1978. It grew out of the Boston/Boise Committee, a group organized in December 1977 to defend the rights of gay men arrested in…

The finding aid is a document containing detailed information about this specific collection within The History Project archives. You can use the finding aid to determine whether information within this collection that has not be digitized is…

Boston’s gay subculture developed in tandem with Prohibition, where speakeasies became natural gathering places for gay individuals who were already leading a clandestine life. The History Project’s Improper Bostonians notes, “Bars and other…

In Newsweekly, known as IN Newsweekly or in newsweekly during some of its publication, was a LGBT newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. It began in 1991 as IN Boston and became IN Newsweekly in 1993 when it merged with other publications, and…

The collection consists of publications, promotional material for events, and other documents relating to AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. The bulk of the collection consists of the publications, which include a pair of early newsletters from…

The collection consists of one record carton with materials consisting of GALA Newsletters and flyers. The collection is ongoing as Dorchester GALA is still in existence.

The Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, (BAGLY) is a youth led, adult supported social support organization, committed to social justice, and creating, programs, policies and services in support of the LGBTQ youth…

The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) was formed in 2001. The organization focused initial efforts on adding a gender identity clause into the City of Boston’s non-discrimination ordinance in 2002. The group expanded to include a…

Men of All Colors Together/Boston (BWMT/Boston; MACT/Boston), founded under the name “Black and White Men Together/Boston” in 1980 is the Boston chapter of the National Association of Black and White Men Together (known as the “International…

The collection consists of newspaper clippings and publications gathered during research for the Above + Beyond exhibit. Included are subject files relating to specific topics such as activism and minorities, which contain primarily newspaper…

Fenway Community Health Center started in 1971 when a group of students and community activists started a weekly drop-in health clinic serving the diverse population of the Fenway neighborhood: gay men, the elderly, students, and low-income tenants.…

George Chapin Scott was born August 1916 in Heath, Massachusetts, the only child to Myria F. Chapin and John H. Scott. He first contacted The History Project in 2000 to donate a large collection of local lesbian and gay newspapers, i.e. The Guide,…

The Gender Crash collection consists of one archival box (.5 linear feet). This box contains a series of folders centering on the monthly open mic Gender Crash, Butch Dyke Boy Productions, and the founder of both organizations, Gunner Scott. This…

The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), founded in 1987 in Massachusetts, is a leading advocate and educational organization for promoting the self- definition and free expression of individual gender identity. IFGE is not a support…

OLE (an acronym for Older Lesbian Energy) is a social organization for lesbian women over age 40. Founded in 1980 by Toni Schiff and Anita Fast, OLE grew out of Schiff's 1979 master's thesis for Goddard-Cambridge School of Social Change, "The…

Joyce Crowder (September 4, 1935 – April 4, 2010) was a nurse and ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. She worked to protect the rights of gay and lesbian nurses through her membership in the Gay Nurses’ Alliance and as secretary for the…

Charles Shively was born in 1937. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard in 1959, and his PhD in 1969. He began teaching at Boston State College in 1965. In 1982 when BSC closed their doors, UMass Boston agreed to take seven of their thirty…

One of the oldest bars in Massachusetts, Fran's place had a long and vibrant life in the city of Lynn. John Collin's opened the tavern in sometime in the 1920's (the exact date is not known). In 1940 the business was passed on to John's parents, Fran…

In February, 1986, Franklin Hummel and John Dumas formed a social group centered originally in Massachusetts but later including New Hampshire, for gay people and their friends who were interested in science fiction and fantasy. The group met…

Gays for Patsy (GFP) is a Boston-based, nonprofit, all-volunteer organization made up of Country/Western dance enthusiasts. They mission is to share the joy of country-western dancing while raising funds for groups serving those in need.
Founded in…