LGBTQ+ History: Museums, Archives, and Landmarks

Explore LGBTQ+ history at museums, archives, and landmarks worldwide. From Stonewall to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, discover art, artifacts, and stories celebrating queer culture and activism.

The Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, New York City, has a huge collection of books, magazines, video clips, posters, pictures, newspapers, ephemera, and extra, open up to researchers by visit. It additionally has publication sales and story hours, and has taking a trip events that can be requested for off-site use.

Lesbian Herstory Archives

The city’s Andy Warhol Museum has the biggest collection of Warhol art and archives in the world. The gallery’s internet site promises you’ll see something various every time you check out. The museum also includes jobs by Warhol’s mommy, Julia Warhola, and hosts performances and various other events.

She has been a reporter and editor for everyday newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and referral publications. She is a political junkie who believes also the wonkiest details are remarkable, and she constantly loves to see political prospects that are groundbreaking in some way. She delights in composing concerning other subjects as well, consisting of religious beliefs (she’s interested in what people think and why), cinema, literature, and film.

Key West, Florida, has actually long been an LGBTQ+ mecca, and one of its most well-known gay citizens was just one of 20th-century America’s best playwrights, Tennessee Williams, writer of The Glass Menagerie, Pet Cat on a Warm Tin Roofing System, A Tram Called Wish, and extra. It’s thought he ended up writing the latter while remaining in a Trick West hotel in 1947, and he got a house there in 1950, which he inhabited until his death in 1983. The Tennessee Williams Museum in Trick West consists of pictures, first version plays and publications, rare newspaper and magazine write-ups, videos, a typewriter used by Williams in Secret West, a range model of his home, and various other artefacts.

Tennessee Williams Museum, Key West

Yes, we will claim Michelangelo’s David as a gay artefact. How many David magnets have you seen on the refrigerators of gay men? Plus Michelangelo was gay, and several scholars believe David and his buddy Jonathan were, well, greater than pals. The huge sculpture can be checked out at the Shopping center dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy. You can also see much of Michelangelo’s work at the Vatican’s Sistine Church if you are taking a trip around the country.

Bisexual musician Frida Kahlo wanted her home in Mexico City, the Casa Azul (Blue Home), where she invested most of her life, to end up being a gallery for all Mexicans and site visitors to appreciate. After her death in 1954, others and buddies carried out her dream, and given that 1958, Museo Frida Kahlo has welcomed all. It includes paints by Kahlo and her partner, Diego Rivera; some of their personal belongings; folk art; pre-Columbian sculpture; and a lot more.

Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul Museum

The Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives in Chicago has a big collection of historical books, audiovisual products, and other LGBTQ+ artefacts, with an emphasis on Chicago and the Midwest. It’s named for very early gay activist Henry Gerber, who started the Society for Human Being Rights, the initial gay legal rights team in the U.S., in the 1920s, and introducing attorney Pearl Hart.

One is at the Smithsonian Organization’s National Gallery of American Background in Washington, D.C. Another is at the Academy Museum of Activity Photo in Los Angeles, however is not always displayed. Some others are in personal collections, and a reproduction set, made for a Disney theme park attraction, is at the Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida (the museum is moving to nearby Cocoa Coastline next May).

Los Angeles and its environments have a rich LGBTQ+ history. The ONE Institute, named for an early gay publication, keeps the ONE Archives of LGBTQ+ historic materials at the College of Southern The golden state and an exhibition area, ONE Gallery, in West Hollywood. The gallery likewise holds Circa: Queer Histories Celebration every October for LGBTQ+ Background Month.

ONE Institute LGBTQ+ Archives

In 1993, the foundation donated more than 200 of his images to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. His job can be seen at numerous various other museums as well, consisting of NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.

The Stonewall National Gallery, Archives, and Collection, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has one of the largest collections of LGBTQ+ artifacts anywhere; its collection’s holdings are the most significant in the world, according to the institution’s website. One is at the Smithsonian Organization’s National Gallery of American Background in Washington, D.C. An Additional is at the Academy Gallery of Movement Pictures in Los Angeles, yet is not always shown. Some others are in private collections, and a replica pair, made for a Disney theme park destination, is at the Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida (the gallery is relocating to neighboring Chocolate Coastline next May).

Stonewall National Museum & Archives

Those shed are additionally honored in the National AIDS Memorial Grove, which covers 10 acres of Golden Gateway Park in San Francisco. “Thousands of people have actually died in San Francisco, millions in the world. The point of the National AIDS Memorial Grove is to remember them, one at a time,” Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi when claimed.

Lots of LGBTQ+ history has actually been made in the nation’s funding. The DC Conservation Organization has actually compiled a list of essential LGBTQ+ historic websites, including the homes of activists Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Powell Burrill, a popular Black couple, and Frank Kameny, who filed a claim against the federal government after being discharged for being gay. There are also sites of historical various other services and gay bars, the home of the Furies Collective (a lesbian feminist group of the 1970s), and gayborhoods. Go right here and plan your trip!

The Museum of Transology in London has greater than 1,000 artefacts connecting to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals’s lives. The collection is housed at the Bishopsgate Institute’s Special Collections and Archives, where you can ask for to see, study, and photograph any kind of artifact absolutely free, and components of the collection are shown throughout the U.K. To find out about current events, go to the museum’s Instagram page.

Museum of Transology, London

The Stonewall National Gallery, Archives, and Collection, in Ft Lauderdale, Florida, has one of the largest collections of LGBTQ+ artefacts anywhere; its collection’s holdings are the biggest in the globe, according to the establishment’s website. Another one on sight via February showcases the Imperial Sunlight Court of All Florida, an LGBTQ+ charitable organization.

Cole Concierge was among the most brilliant Broadway composer-lyricists of the 20th century, well known for his witty way with words: “Old sloths that suspend from twigs do it/ Though the initiative is terrific/ Pleasant guinea-pigs do it/ Wait and get a couple.” That’s from “Let’s Do It (Let’s Loss In Love).” The piano on which he made the melodies to choose those lyrics is on screen at the Waldorf Astoria New York; Porter stayed in a collection at the resort for three decades.

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s elderly politics editor and copy chief. She has actually been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, profession publications, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks also the wonkiest details are remarkable, and she always enjoys to see political prospects who are groundbreaking in some way. She delights in discussing various other topics also, including religion (she has an interest in what individuals believe and why), movie theater, literature, and movie. Trudy is a proud “old motion picture weirdo” and enjoys the Hollywood movies of the 1930s and ’40s most of all others. Other passions include timeless rock-and-roll (Bruce Springsteen policies!) and background. Oh, and she was a Risk! entrant back in 1998 and won 2 video games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, however Trudy still takes satisfaction in this achievement.

Walt Whitman Home & Museum

On the East Coastline, you can discover much regarding the great gay poet Walt Whitman. The Walt Whitman Native Home and Museum in Huntington Terminal, New York (on Long Island), consists of the residence where Whitman was birthed in 1819. In Camden, New Jacket, the Walt Whitman Residence is the home he acquired in 1884, the only residence he ever before had.

A must-see in the Castro is the GLBT Historical Society Gallery, complete of long-term and revolving exhibitions highlighting the variety of LGBTQ+ people throughout background. Permanent events consist of “Queer Past Becomes Existing,” in the museum’s major gallery, and a fragment of the first Satisfaction flag, created in 1978.

GLBT Historical Society Museum

If you intend to take in some LGBTQ+ history and society, we have actually set up a list of things to put on your container listing. From Sappho to Stonewall, Harvey Milk to Judy Garland, here are the queer points we advise you see in your time on this planet.

One more great gay composer-lyricist– as well as a playwright and entertainer– of the 20th century was England’s Noël Coward. “The Coward Room is a rich repository of theatre background, and additionally a illuminating and insightful place to discover the array of Coward’s creativity and influence outside the theater, including his work as a songwriter, painter, cabaret musician and social advocate,” according to its site.

A must-see in the Castro is the GLBT Historical Culture Museum, full of permanent and rotating exhibits highlighting the diversity of LGBTQ+ individuals throughout background. His job can be viewed at lots of other galleries as well, including NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.

Fire Island, situated on New york city’s Long Island, has actually been a trip location for LGBTQ+ individuals for decades. The Pines has generally been a gay males’s sanctuary, while lesbians have been attracted to Cherry Grove, however there are lots of members of our community everywhere on Fire Island.

The National Civil Rights Museum was established in 1991 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The gallery has artifacts, films, dental histories, and much more, along with a variety of events and exhibits. It “notes the initial phase of preserving Rustin’s heritage at the museum,” according to the organization’s site.

We would not have the terms “sapphic” and “lesbian” without the poet Sappho and her home on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho is substantial not just for her love of females yet for creating love poetry as we understand it. She additionally created the statuary of Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.