The T-Male Presents:
A Call for archive of publications, documents and other media to document the history to the FTM community locally and nationally.
This page created October 3, 2006
From the submitter:
My name is Gavin Bartlett (I am an FTM) I am contacting you because I know you may have some interest in a project that I am working on that will be very important to the FTM community.
As a representative of the Atlanta FTM group, I am working with Dr. Rick Hudson and the Atlanta Public library to create an archive of publications, documents and other media to document the history to the FTM community locally and nationally. I have attached an article from “Southern Voice” about the exhibition that led to the development of the Archives. The Archives will represent the GBLT community as a whole, and we are working on the transgender section for FTMs.
The Archives will be looking for original manuscripts to be donated by authors, signed books by authors, posters from activities, additional editions of books for circulations, articles by and for FTMs, films etc. In addition, the library will be providing a meeting room, where the Atlanta FTM group can have monthly meetings, to address FTM issues, book signings, etc.
I am hoping that you may have materials to donate and/or know of individual's I should contact. Please feel free to forward my information to anyone that you think should have it, or send to me contact information and I will contact him or her.
I can be contacted through the address, phone or email below. Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Gavin Bartlett
Southern Voice Article: Books from the closet
Gay library director, local bibliophile join for exhibition of gay book collection
By BO SHELL
Friday, August 25, 2006
It's not everyday that one of Atlanta's largest public institutions dedicates a space dedicated to gay and lesbian history, but that's
exactly what happened when John Szabo, director of the Atlanta- Fulton County Public Library system, welcomed "Out at the Library" to the system's largest location.
The national gay history display brought an invigorated interest in archiving local gay history, a part of Atlanta that should not be
forgotten, Szabo says. "[The public library], in many respects, is a caretaker of community history," Szabo says. "Atlanta has a large lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and we continue to serve that community's needs. But as we also collect and archive pieces of Atlanta and Fulton County history, it's important that we include pieces of that history."
Szabo, who served as the director of the Clearwater, Fla., public libraries for six years prior to moving to Atlanta in April 2005,
says the city's public library system further opens its doors to the acceptance of gay memorabilia by changing the name of its Central Library archives from "Georgia Local and Family History" to "Special Collections." The new description "allows us to be a little bit broader in scope," Szabo says.
"We're looking for materials that aren't so easily available today, things collected in the 1930s, `40s and `50s... even small posters or brochures that promoted cer tain causes or advertised particular organizations" he says. Szabo, who is gay, adds that special efforts to archive black gay history are in the works at the Auburn Avenue Research Center with cooperation from Zami, an Atlanta organization for lesbians of color.
Representatives from Zami did not return calls for comment.
Szabo says gay-specific archives remind gay and straight Atlantans that gay men and lesbians are and continue to be part of the
community's collective history. In the last 10 years with the explosion of the gay and lesbian experience in the media, the tremendous amount of coverage causes a lot of people to only think about gays and lesbians being something of recent history," he says. "I think it's good to remind people that gays and lesbians have always been around."
Evidence of gay men and lesbians in history is perhaps most apparent in literature, where names like Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and Tennessee Williams join other celebrated authors, regardless of their sexual orientation. Rick Hudson, a book collector and Atlanta physician, says he hopes his expansive book collection, which includes first editions and autographed books by some of the world's most prolific gay authors, will serve as a steppingstone toward a brighter future for archiving gay history.
Some 1,500 rare books and other pieces of gay ephemera, like papers from the 1950s gay rights group the Mattachine society, comprise Hudson's collection, which he says could be worth about $250,000. "I think of it as a starting point because there's so much more that needs to be done," he says of his collection. "It could be the largest gay and lesbian archive ever in the nation. That's what I would like."
Hudson's collection dates back to 1860, when Walt Whitman published his second edition of "Leaves of Grass." First editions are usually considered the most valuable, but for a gay bo ok collector, Whitman's "Leaves" in second edition is even better, as it contains both the gay-themed Calamus poems and Whitman's signature.
Hudson selected 15 to 20 of his most prized books for display in conjunction with Touching Up Our Roots, an Atlanta gay history
organization, and "Out at the Library" at the Central Library in Downtown Atlanta. The collection, is scheduled to open Aug. 29 with a reception featuring local gay writers.
"[History] should inspire," says Dave Hayward, coordinator of Touching up Our Roots. "It gives you a sense of strength, and
identity to keep on going. We don't have full equity, we're still a long way from that, but this could be an inspiration to appreciate
what we've done and use it to keep going."
Berl Boykin, a local author expected to attend the exhibit event, says Hudson's display collection, which features works by Truman
Capote, Gore Vidal and others, will hopefully serve as "a magnet."
"It should draw other books, other records out of the closet, literally, physically and metaphorically," Boykin says. "These are the rock stars of the collection." Hudson says the books reflect the individual tastes of gay authors, but also the times in which they were written.
His earliest books, for instance, feature gay characters who suffer tragic circumstances and sometimes commit suicide due to
internalized homophobia. Later books show strong characters, reflecting changes in the public's perception of gay men and
lesbians.
"Each decade has its own flavor," Hudson says. "Part of the value is that you don't get this out of one or two books. As time progresses, there is a change of identity and self-awareness, definitely professing in a beneficial way."
"We can't lose our history," Boykin adds. "It's been suppressed, stomped on and repressed by the straight community, and if we don't pull it together, it will all be lost."
© 2006 The Transitional Male in cooperation with Gavin Bartlett's; The Atlanta FTM group & Dr. Rick Hudson - All Rights Reserved