Banners
What is a march without a banner? At LHA we have been fortunate because many organizations have donated banners they created and carried in many different marches.
With the help of two wonderful LHA interns and advice from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we have processed and catalogued seventy-five of our donated banners.
Many political protests have made their positions clear to the public and their targets by creating and carrying or hanging banners. These too have been donated to the Archives. In the collection are the theme sections of fourteen NYC Dyke March banners; protest banners from Lesbian Avenger actions (“Teach About Lesbian Lives”); and banners identifying groups (“Las Buenas Amigas”). Most of the banners have been handmade, although we have a group of banners from Stonewall 20 that were commercially produced. The catalog records can be searched by keywords, including by organization, event, year, size, colors, material, etc. The banners are being stored off-site and to make it possible for visitors and researchers to see them, we photographed each one. Color photocopies of each banner have been gathered into a binder, which can be found on our reference shelves.