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The Archives in Park Slope, Brooklyn
(click to enlarge)
An Introduction Most people think
of “an archives” as a dreary, dusty and dark place
filled with boxes of papers of interest only to a small group
of academic researchers and writers. Erase that image from
your mind.
The Lesbian Herstory Archives is a magical place—part
library, part museum, a community gathering space- and it
houses the world’s largest collection of materials by
and about lesbians and their communities. The Archives has
both print and non-print materials, such as books, unpublished
papers, conference proceedings, newsletters, photographs,
slides, periodicals, audio-tapes, CDs, DVDS, videos, films,
subject and organizational files, reference tools, artwork,
calendars, banners, manuscripts, music, clothing, buttons
and other materials about lesbians and lesbian lives in the
U.S. and in other countries. With minor exceptions, all of
the material has been donated
to the Archives.
We especially welcome the “casual browser,” the
lesbian who is searching for an image of herself in our past
or just wants to find out more about the herstory of our communities.
Of course, we also welcome academic researchers, writers,
filmmakers, and others who use our materials for specific
projects.
The Archives in Park Slope, Brooklyn
(click to enlarge)
For
the first 15 years of our existence, The Archives was located
in Joan Nestle’s apartment on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. In 1985, with books three deep on the shelves and
every spare inch of space (except the bed) taken up with lesbiana,
we began a fundraising campaign to find a permanent home.
In 1990, with money donated by lesbians worldwide, we purchased
a four-story, turn-of -the –20th-century limestone townhouse
in Park Slope, Brooklyn, that we now own outright. We had
our official opening in June 1993.
The house has an amazing amount of its original detail, including
beautiful mahogany wainscoting in the hallway and dining room,
oak floors, leaded
glass doors on built in cabinets surrounding the fireplace
in the dining room, and mahogany closets plus marble sinks
in the inner passageway between the upstairs rooms. We added
built in bookshelves, a workstation, an outside wheelchair
lift and a wheelchair accessible bathroom on the first floor.
The first floor has a comfortable couch you can sink into
to watch a video or read a book as well as worktables, a photocopier,
and hookups for laptops. The second floor also has worktables
and laptop hookups. The basement, first and second floors
are used for processing and storing the collections, as well
as for research. The top floor has a caretaker’s apartment.
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| Copyright © 2015 by LHEF, Inc. |
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