#Lesbian Herstory Archives

[efemmera-archive]

Spinster, "a lighthearted lesbian gayme" created by Lavender Lace and published by Iowa City Women's Press in 1982

Source: Lesbian Herstory Archives

[that-butch-archivist]

"Ira Jeffries (far right), with her girlfriend, Snowbaby, and her mother, Bonita (standing), celebrating Ira's sixteenth birthday in a Harlem club" from the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Captioned: "I'm the butch but I'm not allowed to dress as I please yet."

source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle

[lagraisselesbienne]

Buttons from the Lesbian Herstory Archives

[yourbelgianthings]

lesbian herstory archive button collection

(all images have alt text description)

[stormysapphic]

Lillian Foster, lifelong partner of Mabel Hampton, 1942. "…When I first met her, in 1932, she was, to me … a duchess — the grand duchess — and I can't remember what she called me now. But later in life, a number of years later, I named her. I got angry with her one day and I called her the 'Little Bear' and she called me the 'Big Bear,' and of course, that hung on to me all through life. And now we're known to all our friends as the 'Big Bear' and the 'Little Bear.'" — Mabel Hampton on Lillian Foster, 1979 Source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle, 1992.

[365daysoflesbians]

"Buddy Kent" from the Lesbian Herstory Archives

c.1940

[genderoutlaws]

Mabel Hampton and her dog Liberation pouring over documents on the floor of the original Lesbian Herstory Archives located in Manhattan in 1977 | ph: Joan Nestle

[vintagesapphics]

back cover of a 1993 volume of the Bay area magazine Aché, a “journal for lesbians of African descent”, featuring artwork by Jackie Hill

[phoenix-joy]

Excerpt:

Edel said the archives were founded because she and members of a group called the Gay Academic Union, which worked to make academia more accepting of LGBTQ people in the ‘70s, began talking about how difficult it was to find reliable information about lesbian history. 

“A few of us said, ‘Hey, why don’t we just start collecting our history? We’re the ones who best know what we need, what we want. Why let other people do that for us, because they’ll control our history?’” recalled Edel, who now splits her time between New Jersey and Arizona with her partner. “We were all people who really knew that our history was disappearing too quickly.”

[...]

The Lesbian Herstory Archives hosts a variety of events, such as a weekly “Lez Craft!” night on Thursdays. For its 50th anniversary, the organization is hosting a “Dyke Prom” in May at a loft in Brooklyn, though Edel noted that the event is already sold out. 

When asked about goals for the next 50 years, she said the archives have outgrown the Brooklyn space and will need to move soon.

“Fifty years is too hard to say,” Edel said. “We leave that in the hands of the next generation. I certainly won’t be around, and I’m just hoping that it still will be mission-driven so that we reflect the amazing complexity of our communities.” /endquote

Photos from article:

[downrushing]

THOUGHT PATTERNS, jennifer camper. detail from consciousness-raising group flyer; undated. via lesbian herstory archives on Instagram.

[queercodex]

shirts from the lesbian herstory archives to wear to the hardware store

[that-butch-archivist]

"Leslie Feinberg with lover, circa 1967" from the Lesbian Herstory Archives

source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle

[lagraisselesbienne]

Buttons from the Lesbian Herstory Archives

[pink-pony-club-president]

Who wants to see some neat stuff I found poking around the Bi Women Quarterly archives

"Bistory at the Lesbian Herstory Archives"

"I talked with Joan about the principles behind the LHA and her vision of its future. She said that the LHA is dedicated first and foremost to being a lesbian space.

When I asked her what she meant by "lesbian" she offered "any woman who has at some time in her life loved another woman" She also remarked that she would rather err on theside of inclusivity than be too exclusive, which explains the large collection of materials relevant to both lesbians and gay men(such as the Gay Community News), feminist materials, and a small but growing collection of materials on bisexuality. For Joan, the mission of the LHA is "to preserve the multiplicity of lesbian presentations." There is something of interest here for any woman who identifies herself as a dyke, a feminist, a mother, a butch or a femme, a prostitute, a worker in a traditional or a non-traditional occupation, a practitioner of S&M, a woman of color, a Jew, a witch, a teenager or an olderwoman, a closeted woman or an activist, a bisexual, an artist, and the list goes on. The sheer amount and variety of the stuff is testimony to the diversity of the lesbian experience and the vitality of lesbian communities"

A poem "Here I Am" by latina bi dyke Laura Perez

"we dream a world

which bridges the barriers,

i, this

bi-coastal, bisexual

dyke of color

have living proof

the distance is

not so great"

Here's the whole thing go check it out

I also found a bi femme and trans lesbian butch couple- and my freakin heart I wish them the most wonderful things wherever they ended up in life

"How I Learned to Love My Femme Self, Butch Dykes, and Transgender Warriors" by Liz Nania

"Laurie honored my bisexuality and I honored her proud trans butchness. We often felt like poster girls for Bi-Trans Unity. She stood up for me to her separatist-lesbian friends who were disapproving of her dating a bi woman; I stood up for her when I heard trans-phobic remarks- We both know bisexuals and transgendered people are truly natural allies and need to celebrate and further develop our bonds i the community"

And here's a lesbian identified bisexual talking about assumptions

"Dont Assume Anything" by Amy Wyeth.

"They say, "Don't Assume Anything" and "Question Au- thority." No one, including gays, bis and hetero- sexuals, should assume anything about someone's sexual preference based only on the way that person looks. Everyone should question the notions defined or perpetuated by those in positions of authority (e.g. the media, certain powerful icons/members of gay culture, and cer- tain dangerous bigots) as to what a lesbian or bisexual woman looks like. Not all of us feel we are well represented by such narrow definitions."

Just goes to show how timeless the bi witticism of Assume Nothing! really is. I highly recommend just perusing through the archives or even the current isues there's loads of interesting history

[365daysoflesbians]

🌈 Found Images from Lesbian Herstory Archives

[ouprettythings]

some favorite t-shirts from the lesbian herstory archive