Newsletter of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives No. 11, February 1995
In this issue:
A new era is starting at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, with new challenges, directions, opportunities and growth. The past year has been a time both of problems and progress. In 1995, with your help, that progress will be consolidated. And exciting new possibilities are on the drawing board.
We have embarked on "building the new Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives" by addressing three essential issues: financial requirements, attracting new people and skills, and developing a bold strategy - a vision and a plan - for the future. The reality is that the Archives, a wonderful community resource, has outgrown many past practices and former funding levels. New ideas, more money, and different approaches are all necessary for future success.
In 1973, a small group of volunteers began to work on the mission of the Archives: to collect, organize and preserve materials concerning lesbians and gays in Canada - their history, culture, organizations, and issues - and to make it accessible to the public. This was, and remains, a vital task. The traditional invisibility of our community and the denial of our stories presents a challenge. If we, as lesbians and gay men, do not preserve the records of our existence, no one else will.
The Archives is now the second largest of its kind in the world. Its 2,000 square feet of space contain a wealth of recorded information on paper, in photographs, on film and video, on sound recordings, in several visual arts formats, and as artifacts.
The rapid growth of the holdings, changing technology, and the increasingly diverse demands of researchers, have brought new challenges in preserving our holdings, and new demands for flexibility in providing public service. These, in turn, have placed pressures on volunteers and on our funding base.
The move to larger premises in 1992 was necessary to accommodate growth. While rental costs were negotiated at a very competitive level, they presented ongoing financial challenges that could not be met entirely through existing fundraising efforts.
In 1994, the Board of Directors adopted a clear goal: to transform the Archives into a sustainable, and self-sustaining, community organization. This will require new, diverse funding sources (such as foundations, business agreements with major organizational users, corporate support, bequests and endowment), increased giving by individual donors, and effective fundraising events.
Initial efforts have been successful as our financial management has moved beyond the concerns of month-to-month survival towards longer-term planning. Fundraising appeals have met with a positive response from across Canada and individual fundraising efforts by friends of the Archives have proved most beneficial. Our warmest thanks to all who have supported these campaigns.
A one-year operating assistance grant from the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal of Toronto was announced in December. It came at a crucial time, and covers about a quarter of basic current operating expenses, enabling the Board to devote more energy to longer-term strategies.
The painstaking work of cultivating funding from foundations has begun. Nominal user fees have been implemented; they raise some money but also convey to users, more and more of whom are non-gay, that the Archives relies on their support in order to function.
Building a stronger financial foundation will continue to be the number one priority of the Board. Every dollar given in support will help to consolidate our progress and enable the Archives to pursue service enhancements and a larger role in the life of Canada's lesbian and gay community.
What can the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives be, and achieve, in the years to come? The answer is wide open and partly depends on your ideas and input. With adequate funding, people and skills, the following goals and visions are some that can be pursued:
Steps have been taken to strengthen our volunteer base and to improve facilities within the Archives. Our new computer system will greatly improve public service and administrative efficiency. The reorganization of the reading room, a new photocopier, and a multi-media viewing and listening area are designed to increase access to our holdings.
We have begun to develop a program of touring exhibits. The first was a display in celebration of Black History Month, shown at the 519 Church St. Community Centre in Toronto during February.
(photo) Barb sorting buttons
The Archives is still run entirely by volunteers - a talented and dedicated group who provide public service, process and preserve materials, and work on a wide range of special projects and committees.
In 1994 the Archives began a campaign to recruit new volunteers, directed by Volunteer Co-ordinator Randi Williams. Here are some comments and observations from three of our new volunteers.
Barb Crisp joined the Archives in August of 1994.
"I first discovered the Archives while reading one of its newsletters. I was fascinated by the historical materials covered in the issue but the articles seemed mostly for men. A few years later when I visited the Archives to donate some materials I noticed all of the valuable materials pertaining to lesbians past and present. I quickly made the decision to commit some time, my skills and my talents to helping this important organization."
"I felt that it was important to volunteer because our herstory and history has been kept from us for centuries. The Archives helps our community to reclaim our lesbian and gay heritage. I love working towards reclaiming our past, on both a personal and political level. It is extremely empowering to work among all these volumes and clippings, posters, buttons, tapes and videos. I am determined to preserve our stories for future generations of lesbians and gays."
"My research, organizational, fundraising and writing skills help me tremendously to fulfill my goal. Presently I am working on the direct mail program for the Archives' fundraising, and a large collection of a now defunct women's organization. Sometimes I even assist with displays."
"I really enjoy being here because the variety of volunteering opportunities are astounding: research, organizing collections, filing, displays, social events, computer work, public service ... the list goes on. Our Archives is a fascinating place because it affords us a rare opportunity to witness a sense of depth and breadth of gay and lesbian community around the world."
I encourage women to volunteer, because our voices are needed to help build
the Archives into a strong national and representative organization. Finally,
I encourage everyone to continue to support us financially; we need your assistance.
Only the lesbian and gay community will care enough to maintain this invaluable
collection. Help us keep our stories alive!
Bruce Jones joined the Archives volunteers in the summer of 1994.
"As someone who has a great respect for books, magazines, and the print medium in general, combined with a passion for preserving the present and past, supporting the CLGA with my time and talents seemed natural."
"As a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and with over twenty years experience as an art director, I bring design, concept and marketing skills to the Archives. I have been involved with promotional displays and a new logo design. One night a week I work at the front desk welcoming and registering users."
"One of the great pleasures of being a volunteer here is meeting others who also recognize the importance of maintaining our history. There is always room for lively discussions and sharing discoveries of past events."
"It is also encouraging to see younger lesbians and gay men using the resources for various educational related projects. By learning from the past, we can hopefully create a better future."
Bruce is responsible for the Archives' display celebrating Black History Month.
(photo) Bruce searching the CLGA administrative records
(photo) Alex answering a telephone enquiry
Alex Ross has been a volunteer with the Archives since early last year.
"When I arrived at the Archives I found the volunteers friendly and extremely helpful. First impressions are very important and I was really impressed. I quickly made a decision to volunteer and I have never regretted one minute. I am interested in gay information and it is here in abundance."
"My profession is acting and I am a member of the Board of Directors of ACTRA. I am interested in doing a promotional video for the Archives that depicts some of the vast and unique holdings housed here."
"I encourage you to visit us on one of the three nights a week that we are open (Tuesday through Thursday) to see what a wealth of general and specific information that we have. This is our Archives and I encourage you to join with me in your own way to ensure that we continue to meet the financial, social, and political challenges of our times."
Alex has recently been donating use of his own photocopier to the Archives.
Since 1992 there has been a steady growth in all areas of acquisition, but the fastest growing area in terms of volume is the records of organizations and individuals in our community. These unique records form the heart of our historical record and they have high priority among our preservation tasks.
The records acquired over the past twenty-two years document most aspects of the community's activities, some in great detail. Areas of greatest strength include political activism, the arts, religion, AIDS, the press, and campus organizations.
The last two years have seen the CLGA adding strength to areas already documented and expanding into others that have been underrepresented. To the records of The Body Politic and Pink Triangle Press (currently the publisher of Xtra!, Capital Xtra!, Xtra! West, and Malebox), we have added those of two magazines that are no longer publishing. One is the short-lived Epicene, edited by Christine Bearchell who donated the records. The other is Rites Magazine; its files also contain the extant records of its predecessor, Pink Ink. The personal records of Bernard Courte, who edited Sortie, contain many files relating to what was Montreal's premier gay magazine. The papers of Doug Wilson, who ran Stubblejumper Press, complement those of Ian Young, acquired much earlier, who ran Catalyst Press in the 1970's and in the early 1980's.
The acquisition last year of the records of the Woman's Common, Toronto's lesbian club, have added substantially to an area that has not been well documented in the Archives: lesbian and gay businesses. Before this, other than the publishers mentioned above, the Archives had acquired the records only of the Back Door Baths and the Toronto Lambda Business Council. We are anxious to acquire the records of community businesses that are no longer active. If you know where they are closeted, we want to hear from you!
Older lesbians and gays have often felt marginalized, and this is an area of increasing interest to researchers. The Archives is delighted with the acquisition of records of Gays and Lesbians Aging (GALA) and the GALA Seniors' Residence Corporation. They pay tribute to Elgin Blair, a pioneer in this area. He founded the first such organization in Canada (OLGA - Older Lesbians and Gays, which became CODA - Came Out Decades Ago) twenty years ago. That was a time when George Hislop was often in the news; now George has donated his personal records to the Archives. They date back to the 1940's and will prove a treasure trove to researchers.
Jim Egan, Karen Andrews, Graham Haig, and Michelle Douglas are familiar to us as individuals who have used human rights commissions and the courts to battle for our rights. We follow their activities avidly and a decade ago acquired Jim's personal records covering his early activist day from the late 1940's to the mid 1960's.
During the past year, the Archives has added substantially to the records documenting legal issues in Canada.
These include declassified documents on the notorious "Fruit Machine" activities of the RCMP in the 1950's and early 1960's targeting the "homosexual menace" in the federal civil service, trial documents relating to the latest Glad Day Bookshop court case, and the records of the Canadian Committee Against Cencorship.
The personal records of community activists such as Kyle Rae are being complemented by donations of material from community groups such as the Polish Gay and Lesbian Group (for example, a video of an interview on Polish TV), Dignity Montreal, and the Imperial Courts, as well as organizations that are now defunct such as the Canadian Lesbian and Gay History Network.
Because the Archives acquires material in almost any medium, we have added substantially to our holdings in non-textual areas. Our poster collection has expanded rapidly; we are, largely through trading, assembling a good collection of European AIDS posters. Our collection of works of art now includes a painting and sketches by Tony Wilson, a watercolour by Edward Pien, and the sketchbooks of Clarence Bames.
The Archives has received copies of many films and videos over the years. In 1993 we received extensive records from filmmaker Nick Sheehan: notes, production and post-production material, artwork, and video and film elements relating to two completed works: No Sad Songs (the first AIDS video in Canada) and The Brick, a coming-of-age story about adolescent boys and drug use. Included as well are material on several of his uncompleted projects.
1995 marks the centenary of Oscar Wilde's incarceration on a charge of homosexual activity. Wilde spent two years in prison, where he wrote De Profundus and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
The Archives owns a number of books on Wilde, most having come from the library of Jim Egan. Amongst these are an 1896 American edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol; the first American edition (1881) of Poems; Oscar Wilde: Three Times Tried (1912), the most complete account of the trial published to that date; and Stuart Mason's 1914 Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. This volume is still an essential aid to anyone interested in the numerous editions of Wilde's works. It does not include the "countless American unauthorized editions and translations into foreign languages".
In 1993, the catalogue (ca. 1920) of an Oscar Wilde collection belong John B. Stetson, Jr. of New York was donated by Alan Suddon in memory of his son, Tom.
We also have a cassette tape of what is reputed to be the voice of Wilde himself reading from The Ballad in Reading Gaol. The original was recorded in 1900, a few months prior to Wilde's death. Our copy was used in the CBC Ideas radio program a few years ago.
The Archives also has a large number of biographies of Wilde. The earliest is The Works of Oscar Wilde: His Life With a Critical Estimate of His Writings, a numbered copy of the Sunflower Edition published in New York in 1909.
Lord Alfred Douglas, whose father occasioned Wilde's disgrace, is also present. Our copy of the 1919 edition of his Collected Poems contains a letter from him to the volume owner.
January 9, 1995 marked the premiere showing of the documentary film: Fiction and Other Truths: a film about Jane Rule. It was held as a benefit for the Archives. Directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weismann and produced by Rina Fratacelli for Great Jane Productions, it is the first film in "The View From Here", a new series from TV Ontario featuring documentaries by the best of Canada's independent filmmakers.
Jane Rule, Canada's pre-eminent lesbian writer, has long been a supporter of the Archives. Personally she has donated a largely complete run of The Ladder, the first American lesbian periodical, published by the Daughters of Bilitis from 1956 to 1972.
In 1977 the offices of The Body Politic (which then included the Canadian Gay Archives) were raided by the police over the article, "Men Loving Boys Loving Men". Jane Rule, who had long been opposed to censorship, offered to write a column for the The Body Politic for the duration of the legal proceedings. The result was a column, "So's Your Grandmother", which ran for the next five years.
Records of these articles, as well as tapes of several interviews and a lively correspondence between Jane Rule and Rick Bebout, a member of The Body Politic's collective, are all preserved in the Archives.
Directors Fernie and Weismann, both vigourous supporters of the Archives, made extensive use of our materials for their previous film, Forbidden Love, and again for Fiction and Other Truths, both for content and visual effects. The loan of posters helped convey a very effective sense of time and place for the recreation of the office of The Body Politic.
The Archives has been the beneficiary of numerous fundraising events held within the community. We would like to thank all those who made these events successes.
Two feature documentary film premiers were held as Archives benefits: the National Film Board's Out: Tales of Lesbian and Gay Youth, and TVO's Fiction and Other Truths: a film about Jane Rule.
Toronto bar-based and other benefits have included:
G.A.R.D. - Butterfly Ball
The 457 - Mad Hatters
Trax V - Trillium Monarchist Society
Big City Hoedown
Badlands - Fall Roundup
Woody's - Miss Draft
Club Baths Toronto - bingo nights
Personal initiative fundraisers included a bike-a-thon by Ken Tomilson, a memorial for Leo Murphy by Carle Falle, and Harold Desmarais' fiftieth birthday at the 519 Community Centre in Toronto.
The response to our fundraising mailings has been gratifying. Donations from over four hundred individuals have been received from across Canada and the U.S.
In 1994 the Archives received bequests from the estates of: John Clinard, Ron Lander, David Vaile, Leo Murphy.
Leo was a long-time volunteer at the Archives, and also served as our accountant. He is sorely missed. Half of all bequest donations have been put into the Archives Reserve Fund to meet future needs. A memorial list is being planned for permanent display in the Archives reading room.
(photo) Floorplan of the Romans II Spa, Toronto
Named to honour the memory of James Fraser, a prime mover behind the Archives in its early years, the Library contains books, periodicals, and monographs in the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
The Library has undergone a major reorganization in recent months. The layout of the reading room has been greatly modified to accommodate a doubling of the number of bookcases and new computer facilities.
Over 3,900 volumes have been catalogued to date. A database of our monographs (largely pamphlets) has also been created. Both can be searched directly on our improved computer system. Included is a very good selection of gay liberation pamphlets from the 1970's.
1994 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riot. While some of our donors and supporters escaped to New York City for the celebrations and to participate in the Gay Games, several left for Europe to take part in Gay Pride celebrations in Paris and Cologne. While there they collected representative periodicals.
From Paris we received Double Face, HomoSphere, Magazine Illico, and others; from Cologne, Mixtour, Xtra! (Vienna's, not Toronto's), Boulevard and many more. Another donor, on a trip to Eastern Europe last June, collected copies of Filo, Inaczej, and Magazyn Gazeta, completing title runs he had donated previously.
A vacation in South America has produced copies of Cronica Criminal (a magazine similar to Allo Police from Montreal) from Venezuela, Muscle Power from Columbia, and other items. A lively commentary and vacation itinerary has placed the whole in context.
While some funding has been available for the Library, we still lack reference books and periodicals which are needed for the extensive research that is carried out at the Archives.
We now have in place an "Adopt-a-periodical, Donate-a-book" program in which donors may earmark donations for the purchase of reference volumes and periodicals. Tax receipts will be issued. Bookplates will mark the donor's name or the person in whose memory the donation was made. For more information on this program, give us a call at: (416) 777-2755
The fall of 1995 will see one of the most exciting events in the history of the Archives, participation in "Pass It On - An Exhibit of Lesbian and Gay Histories", a three month exhibit documenting highlights of Toronto's lesbian and gay community.
The fifteenth anniversary of the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal provides the springboard for the exhibit. The Appeal and the Archives are working together to secure this first-ever event with the Toronto Historical Board. Also participating is the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario, celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year.
From September through November the exhibit will be housed in the Historical Board's beautifully renovated heritage site, the Banking Hall, at 205 Yonge Street, opposite the Eaton Centre. A series of speakers, panel discussions, film and performance events is also planned.
The Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal responded favourably to a request from the Archives for assistance with operating expences. A special grant in the amount of $1,000 per month, for twelve months, was announced in November 1994. Our sincere thanks to the Appeal for helping out during a time of transition at the Archives.
Financial supporters and those who have made donations-in-kind to the Archives:
John Clinard, Donald Cook, Bill Cousintine, Adrian de Vander Vogue, David Edwards,
A.T. Ferguson, Michael Fitzgerald, Bill Haggerty, David Halpern, James Jefferson,
George Karkoulos, Carl Kollmayer, Andrew Mullin, Leo Murphy, David Newcome,
John Preston, Don Rossiter, Sean Waterson, Alexander Wilson, Bruce Worden.
Lesbian and Gay Archivist is the official newsletter of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Published irregularly, it is distributed free of charge. ISSN 0714-3605. Contributors to this issue include Harold Averill, Ray Brillinger, Barb Crisp, Bruce Jones, Don McLeod, Alan Miller, Alex Ross, and Randi Williams. Edited by Gerry Keith and Harold Averill. Typesetting and layout by Gerry Keith.