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June 1975: Our first newsletter came out in June 1975. It has seven pages of xeroxed text, stapled in the upper left corner. In it the women who started the Archives introduce themselves, and offer a formal statement of structure and purpose. This statement has been in almost every issue of the newsletter since then, and you will find it on this website as well.

There is a listing of "Serial Media with Lesbian Content," and under the header: "Suggestions for Needed Collections" we ask for newspaper clippings and articles. Much of this requested material went into the Subject Files, which were microfilmed and digitized by Thompson Gale and form a set of 155 reels which can be purchased and for which we receive royalties.

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March 1976: Newsletter 2. This year we manage to get out two issues of our newsletter. Our own copy of issue 2 is 6 stapled xeroxed pages.

It contains our first bibliography, and this became a feature in almost all subsequent newsletters. This one is the “Bibliography of bibliographies,” a guide to reference material that mentions lesbians. Four of the entries are strictly about lesbians, 36 are primarily about women or homosexuals. This is 1976.

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November 1976: Newsletter 3, the only one printed on legal size paper, long before we thought about practical things such as making the newsletters uniform in size. In it: a partial listing of some of our collections, a listing of some of our new acquisitions, and announcements.

One of these announcements is about the deadline for material for Heresies’ issue on Lesbian Art, to appear in 1977, and the announcement of a loss: Lavender Women’s last issue will be Vol 5 # 1, July 1976.

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February 1978: Newsletter 4. The first illustrated cover: a collage of some of the poetry from our collection. This is also the first newsletter with a double page spread layout, not just single pages stapled in the upper left corner. In this issue: a listing of research projects, new donations, and a plea for help to publish our newsletter more regularly, as well as requests for clippings and all relevant materials. The bibliography covers our poetry collection at that time.

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Spring 1979: Newsletter 5, with Mabel Hampton on the cover, a bibliography on our short story collection, and the first elaborate piece on how we find funding. This is the year we turned into a not-for-profit organization: we’re incorporated now! Also in this issue: the usual research questions, and Joan Nestle’s "One Woman’s View: Thoughts on What the Archives Is and Can Be."