Brown University Library Collections
LGBTQ Collections
These collections comprise the Global Lavender Voices Strategic Direction at the John Hay Library. Global Lavender Voices celebrates the lived experiences, contributions, accomplishments, and cultures of LGBTQIA2S communities, both in the United States and internationally.
The
Richard G. Katzoff Collection, which includes more than 4,700 volumes of gay pulp fiction (1950s-1990s), sadomasochistic fiction and pictorial erotica, and contemporary lesbian fiction, provides a window into the role that literature and other ephemeral publications played in the development of LGBTQIA2S subcultures in the United States. This material is complemented by a growing collection of rare published and ephemeral material produced by gay communities in Japan, China, and South Korea.
Printed holdings are complemented by literary and archival collections including the records of
On Our Backs, the lesbian erotica magazine, and the papers and book collections of queer writers and editors including
John Preston (erotica and non-fiction),
Scott O'Hara (pornographic film),
Rudy Kikel (poetry), and Michael Denneny (non-fiction, editorial).
The transformative influence of queer women and gender theorists on higher education and the arts in the United States and internationally from the 1970s to the present is documented in the Pembroke Center Archives. Notable collections within the PCA are the papers of
Anne Fausto-Sterling (biology and gender development),
Barbara Johnson (literary criticism and psychoanalysis), and
Kate Bornstein '69 (performance artist and "gender outlaw").
The unique holdings within this strategic collecting direction have been strongly enhanced by the enduring partnership between the Hay and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.
Return to Collections A to Z Index
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ACT UP Rhode Island
The ACT UP Rhode Island (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) records contain minutes of meetings, correspondence, financial records, reports, booklets, handbooks, pamphlets, clippings, mailings, newsletters, conference material, publications, lists of members and contacts, ACT UP/RI circulars and posters, photographs and clippings of ACT UP demonstrations, documentation of Rhode Island legislation, regulations, and policies concerning AIDS. Also included are AIDS-related materials from other ACT UP groups, especially New York, and various gay and lesbian groups, both in Rhode Island and nationally. Topical files document developments in AIDS treatment, public health issues, government policy, AIDS activism, and various gay/lesbian issues. There are also three painted plywood panels and one cloth banner in the collection.
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Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre
The dates for the Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre collection ranges from 1970 to 2006. This collection consists of nine series which focus on the growth and development of not only the Department of Africana Studies, but on the growth of the Rites and Reason Theatre.
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Barlow (Tani E.)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Tani E. Barlow, the George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. The collection documents Barlow's personal life and academic career and research interests of feminism, postcoloniality, and women's history in Asia, specifically in China.
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Barrett (Ellen M.)
Ellen M. Barrett, a scholar specializing in medieval monastic history, was the first openly gay person, and one of the earliest women, to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. Beginning in 1975, when she was ordained deacon, through 1977 when she was ordained priest, the collection documents her path to ordination and the far reaching international reaction to her ordination. The collection covers her subsequent, nearly thirty-year career as priest in the Episcopal Church and her eventual postulancy in an Anglican women's monastic community.
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Berlant (Lauren)
The Lauren Berlant papers document her interest in the mechanisms of power relating to juridical and institutional "boundary-drawing" between public and private, white and non-white, and other types of socio-political relationships. These papers consist of diverse artifacts including published articles, unpublished creative-writing (poetry and prose), correspondence, conference notes, photographs, ephemera, syllabi and documents of relevance to her research and pedagogy on gender, sexuality, race and feminist theory. Many of the documents found in this collection are heavily annotated copies of Berlant's teaching materials for her courses on Afro-American Women Writers, Early American Novel, and Feminism and the Public Sphere. While many of the documents of Berlant's papers are photocopies of 19th and 20th century texts, the collection mainly consists of her work on feminism, gender, sexuality, and race from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
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Bornstein (Kate)
This collection consists of the papers of Kate Bornstein, performer, playwright, author, and transgender activist who graduated from Brown University as Albert Bornstein in 1969. The collection documents Bornstein's personal and professional life and trans activism, and includes biographical information, correspondence, diaries, conference material, draft writings, writings by other authors, subject files, print material, ephemera, photographs, and electronic records dating from 1910-2018. The Bornstein papers were curated by the Nancy L. Buc '65 Pembroke Center Archivist on behalf of the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive and the John Hay Library.
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Brennan (Teresa)
The Teresa Brennan papers contain a broad range of materials dating between 1965 and 2002. Letters, research notes, institution building materials, syllabi, lecture notes, manuscript drafts, and other such material comprise the largest component of this collection. The papers are arranged into eight series, some with multiple sub-series. ...more information
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Capone, Clifford
Photographs, correspondence, playbills, and playscripts used and created during the career of Clifford Capone who was a costume designer for theater productions and movies based in New York City. He worked for film directors Woody Allen and Gordon Willis among others.
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Crosby (Christina)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Christina Crosby, lesbian and feminist scholar, social justice activist, and co-founder of Sojourner House – a non-profit dedicated to supporting those affected by domestic and sexual violence in Rhode Island. Crosby worked as a Professor in the English Department and a Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. Her scholarship focused on women in 19th-century British literature but turned toward disability studies after a near-fatal bicycle accident in 2003. In 2016, Crosby published "A Body Undone: Living on After Great Pain" documenting this experience. The collection documents Crosby's personal life, academic career, research, and writing, and includes photographs, correspondence, syllabi, handwritten notes, research articles, and writing drafts. The collection spans from 1949 to 2023.
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Dickson (James C.)
These papers document the career of James C. Dickson (Class of 1968) as an activist and organizer for disabled individuals, primarily with the VOTE! 2000 Campaign, an effort to increase the number of voters with disabilities. Includes materials Dickson used in his efforts to increase the voting rights of disabled persons and their access to polling places. The materials contain information on poll accessibility, black voters, gay and lesbian voters, voting statistics, the motor voter law, election reforms, methods of voting, and the registration of potential voters when they apply for food stamps, Medicaid or a driver's license. Also consists of material documenting other organizing efforts involving the rights of children, especially children with disabilities, and the medical care of the elderly and people with disabilities.
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Feminist Theory Archive
The Feminist Theory Archive collection consists of links to the manuscript collections that are processed and available for research as part of the Feminist Theory Archive. The collection is arranged in one series, alphabetically by the last name of the donor to the Feminist Theory Archive. By clicking on the links included in this finding aid, researchers will be redirected to the corresponding online finding aids for individual collections.
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Gay Pulp Fiction
A growing collection of over 4,700 volumes of gay men's pulp fiction. They range in date from 1933-1997 with the bulk published during 1953-1997. A small number of lesbian-interest titles are included. The collection began with the acquisition of a large private collection and has been supplemented with various purchases and gifts by works from two other collections of gay literature, the Scott O'Hara Papers, and the James Jackson bequest. See searchable database. Stored off-site.
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Gaylactic Network
The Gaylactic Network records consist of administrative records, newsletters, correspondence and promotional material for the years 1986-2005 pertaining to and were compiled by Franklin Hummel. The collection covers the activities of both the Gaylactic Network and most of its local member organizations, as well as their annual conference Gaylaxicon.
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Glass (Jodi L.)
The Jodi Glass papers provide rich documentation of the inner workings of feminist organizations and movements in Rhode Island and beyond. Included in the collection are the correspondence, essays, news clippings, legislation, agendas, and minutes of a number of groups and movements, including the Rhode Island Feminist Chorus, Feminist Resources Unlimited and the anti-pornography movement.
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Gund (Catherine)
This collection contains the professional and activist files of Catherine Gund, film and television producer, director, writer, and activist whose work focuses on AIDS and the LGBTQIA+ community. Gund is the founder of Aubin Pictures, a nonprofit documentary film company, and a member of the Brown University class of 1988. Materials include correspondence, clippings, and handwritten notes from Gund’s consultancy and board work; research, production, and post-production materials for various films and television shows by Gund; and magazines, newspapers, journals and zines. Materials date from 1971 to 2020.
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Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays
The Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays is composed of approximately 250,000 volumes of American and Canadian poetry, plays, and vocal music dating from 1609 to the present day. It is perhaps the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind in any research library. The works of most well-known (and many thousands of little-known) American and Canadian poets and playwrights, from the 18th century to the present day, are held comprehensively. There are significant holdings of early American literature, hymnals, songsters, little magazines, contemporary fine printing, extensive collections on Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe, women's writings, gay and lesbian literature, modern first editions, Yiddish-American literature, and French-Canadian literature. The Collection is fully cataloged, with records available in Josiah, the Library's online catalog.. Includes periodicals, broadsides, recordings, films, electronic resources, manuscripts, prints and photographs.
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Jackson (James)
Approximately 1,900 titles in the area of gay/lesbian literature, much of it dating from the pre-Stonewall era. The Jackson Collection contains many titles not proviously owned by Brown and virtually all are in very good condition and retain their dust jackets. There are a quite a few lesbian-related titles which fills in a gap in our existing holdings and quite a few gay-related science fiction and fantasy titles which complement one of existing collection strengths. Quite a few of the books are signed or inscribed, this being particularly true of the post-Stonewall titles.
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Japanese LGBTQ+ Magazine
Collection of magazines published in Japan by and for the LGBTQ+ communities. The collection currently consists of 25 periodicals published between 1952 to 2019. It includes several rare titles of members-only publications, community magazines for crossdressers as well as magazines of sexual customs that predate Japan's first commercially circulated gay magazine Barazoku.
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Johnson (Barbara)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Barbara Johnson, American literary critic and scholar of deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and queer theory. The collection documents Johnson's personal life, academic career, research, and writing, and is composed of biographical materials, correspondence, syllabi, handwritten notes, research articles, and writing drafts, dating from 1971-2009. ...more information
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Kamuf (Peggy)
Papers of Peggy Kamuf (b. 1947), Marion Frances Chevalier Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The collection documents Kamuf's professional career and scholarship in comparative literature and literary theory. Items include drafts of published articles, lectures, and books such as The Division of Literature, or the University in Deconstruction (1997), Book of Addresses (2009), and To Follow: The Wake of Jacques Derrida (2010). Kamuf is not only a leading translator of Helène Cixous, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Derrida’s works, but she also studies, writes, and lectures about Rousseau, Woolf, Baudelaire, and Stendhal.
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Katzoff (Richard G.)
The collection, named in honor of Richard G. Katzoff and housed in the John Hay Library at Brown University, consists primarily of literary works relating to gays and lesbians, with a small component of history and sociology; most are U.S. publications. The core of the Collection is the gift of books, primarily novels dating from the 1970s and 1980s, received in 1991 from the estate of Richard Katzoff, supplemented by the library and personal writings of John Preston, journalist, author and editor of gay literature (the Library also houses Preston's papers). In addition, the Collection includes the publications of Larry Townsend (sadomasochistic fiction and pictorial erotica), many books from the library of Edmund White, an extensive collection of contemporary lesbian fiction, and many other smaller donations of gay and lesbian writings. Materials continue to be added to the Collection by gift and purchase; an endowment has been established for that purpose by the Katzoff family. More recent acquisitions include the Gay Pulp Fiction collection containing over 4,700 titles of gay pulp fiction published between 1933-1997 with the bulk created during 1953-1997.
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Kiernan, Caitlín
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is a science fiction writer and vertebrate paleontologist who has published novels, short stories, comics, and scientific articles. In addition to the books and stories she has published, Kiernan also worked with DC Comics to complete a sixty-issue series of comics called The Dreaming during 1997-2001. She publishes Sirenia Digest which is an online "monthly journal of the weirdly erotic." She also contributes entries most days to her blog which began on November 23, 2001 as "Grey Girl Beast" and then renamed as "Dear Sweet Filthy World" (https://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/). Between 1996 and 1997, Kiernan was the vocalist and lyricist for a "goth-folk-blues band," called Death's Little Sister based in Athens, Georgia. This collection contains her handwritten journal from childhood and other juvenilia, drafts of comics, edited manuscripts of novels and short stories, correspondence with fiction editors, correspondence with paleontologists, manuscripts and journals of paleontology work, her desktop computer, and collectibles from the band Death's Little Sister.
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Kikel (Rudy)
These papers represent a comprehensive portrait of Rudy Kikel, a distinguished gay poet, scholar, and journalist, and a staunch supporter of gay and lesbian writers and artists. Kikel was also the arts and entertainment editor for Bay Windows, New England's leading LGBT weekly, beginning in 1983 when it was first established until he retired in 2004. This collection consists of a variety of materials, the bulk of which date from the early 1960s to 2004. It includes an extensive compilation of manuscripts of Kikel's poetry, copies of his scholarly and professional writings, an assortment of significant LGBT periodicals, and correspondence from many acclaimed gay poets, including Thom Gunn, Richard Howard, Felice Picano, Paul Monette, and James Merrill, to cite just a few.
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Krongelb (Malana)
The Malana Krongelb zine collection consists of administrative files and zines that focus on social justice and marginalized identities, dating from 1974 to 2018. Areas of strength include zines by and about people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer peoples, disabled people, interpersonal violence, sex and relationships, sex work, the prison industrial complex, self-care, feminism, and punk.
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Lawson (Todd S. J.)
Todd S. J. Lawson was an accomplished mid-to-late twentieth century gay writer of both prose and poetry, a small press publisher and editor, and a journalist. This collection consists of a variety of materials, the bulk of which dates from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, and includes manuscripts, correspondence, print materials, business records, and a small collection of photographs and ephemeral materials. In addition to a substantial collection of manuscripts mainly from Lawson's own writings, it includes a significant number of printing proofs, and an interesting collection of scattered issues, including a few historic titles, from a variety of small press periodicals.
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McLoughlin (William Gerald)
Professor William Gerald McLoughlin taught history at Brown University from 1954-1992 and was an active and vocal participant professionally and personally in all of the issues and events during those years: freedom of speech, civil rights, racial equality, gender equality (Louis Lamphere sex discrimination case), nuclear energy, improving the Providence education system, the Vietnam War, divestment from South Africa, and US intervention in Nicaragua during the 1980s. His papers are particularly useful for studying the changes in America and their effect s at Brown University during his tenure. His major areas of scholarship were religion in America (particularly Baptists and Evangelicals), the Cherokee Indian Nation, antislavery movement, African Americans, and Rhode Island history. This collection contains research notes and subject files for his many research topics, drafts for some of his published books, correspondence with colleagues and friends, minutes for meetings of the various committees at Brown and in the community on which he served, and newspaper clippings for topics of importance to him.
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Metcalf (Edward De Forest)
Edward De Forest Metcalf (1924-1968) was a Providence writer of poetry and short stories. Metcalf's papers contain numerous drafts and fragments as well as complete literary works. Included in the papers is a compilation Edward De Forest Metcalf's writings that was published after his death by his father, George T. Metcalf.
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Middlebrook (Diane)
Papers of Diane Middlebrook, biographer, poet, and Professor Emeritus of English at Stanford University. Collection includes correspondence, subject and research files, interview transcripts, manuscript drafts, photographs, and electronic records, primarily relating to her biographical research on Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Billy Tipton, and Ovid, between 1958-2008.
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NCADD (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence)
Marty Mann (1905-1980) founded NCADD and dedicated her life to teaching the public that alcoholism is a preventable and treatable disease, not a moral failing.
The archive comprises 16 record storage boxes containing official and personal correspondence, papers, articles, speeches, brochures, press clippings, field reports, Board minutes, photographs, films, and audio cassettes. (An additional portion of Mann's papers can be found at Syracuse University; the online finding aid for that collection is linked below).
NOTE: Researchers using this collection are asked to abide by the Anonymity Guidelines for the Brown University Library AA Collections.
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Needmor Fund
The Needmor Fund is a family foundation established in Toledo, Ohio in 1956 by Duane and Virginia Stranahan with income from the Champion Spark Plug business. It focuses on funding community organizing efforts to create a more equitable and just society. The records document the activities of the Needmor Fund from the the 1970's to the early 21st century and include correspondence, grant applications, pamphlets, seminar brochures, notes from site visits, speeches, and publications.
Within the Needmor Fund Collection, the Kathy Partridge papers include material related to gay and lesbian issues.
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O'Hara
Literary and personal papers, 1979-1998, of Scott O'Hara (1961-1998), pornographic film actor, author, magazine publisher, also containing publications that include material by or about him.
The gay pulp paperbacks acquired as part of this collection are listed in the Gay Pulp Fiction database.
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On Our Backs
The archive of the lesbian periodical, On Our Backs. The library also holds a run of the periodical. See Josiah record.
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Oral history interviews concerning ACT UP of Rhode Island an
Oral history interviews conducted in 1993 by Peter Cohen with AIDS activists who were involved with the group ACT UP in Rhode Island and New York. The interviews were used as part of Peter Cohen's dissertation research at Brown University and used extensively in his subsequent publication: Love and Anger: Essays on AIDS, Activism, and Politics (Haworth Press, 1998).
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Preston (John)
John Preston authored over 30 books, ranging from fiction and erotica to such important non-fiction titles as Personal Dispatches: Writers Confront AIDS and Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong. The Preston archive is especially important in that it contains many thousands of letters between Preston and a vast array of authors that comment upon matters both literary and socio-historical. Among Preston's most prolific correspondents was Ann Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, whose papers provide insight into the link between straight/gay and erotic/mainstream fiction.
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Rhode Island Women's Health Collective
This collection contains the records of the Rhode Island Women's Health Collective, a non-profit organization that operated from 1975 to 1999 with the mission of improving the health of women and their families through education, advocacy and mutual support. Topics in the collection include pregnancy and childbirth, birth control, maternal and child health, cancer and cancer screening, and women's mental health. Materials include administrative files, financial records, grant materials, event materials, photographs, research materials, and electronic records on removable carriers dating from 1973-1997.
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Russell (John C.)
The John C. Russell papers are a collection of the late playwright's scripts, notebooks, journals, correspondence, photographs and personal documents, most of them produced during the six years before his death in 1994.
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Schor (Naomi)
The Naomi Schor papers span the years from 1950-2002 and consist of personal and professional correspondence, literary manuscripts, research and teaching materials, and materials from her professional activities. The collection documents Schor's career as one of the foremost scholars of French literature and critical theory and a pioneer feminist theorist of her generation.
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Sharpe (Christina)
This collection consists of the papers of Christina Sharpe, Professor of English at York University and notable Black feminist theorist. The collection documents Sharpe's professional life and research in racism, slavery, and feminism, consisting of correspondence, conference material, draft writings, writings by other authors, subject files, and print material, dating from 1989 to the present.
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Shawomet Baptist Church
The Shawomet Baptist Church was officially organized in 1842 as the Old Warwick Baptist Church. The original congregation of "Six Principle" Baptists combined resources with Regular (Calvinist) Baptists, whose numbers were growing as a result of the Second Great Awakening, to occupy a small meetinghouse on the Warwick Neck peninsula in Rhode Island. In 1851 their name was officially changed to Shawomet Baptist Church. The word Shawomet is the Narragansett Indian name for Warwick Neck. The church closed in 2011. The records include founding documents, publications, meeting minutes, correspondence, financial records, membership lists, club and activity records and photographic materials documenting the 170-year history of the congregation. The bulk of the material covers the period from 1945 through 1999. This is part of the Rhode Island Baptist Heritage Center collection.
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Society for Women in Philosophy
This collection consists of the records of the Society for Women in Philosophy, an organization established in 1972 to support and promote women in philosophy. The collection includes newsletters, correspondence, and conference materials, dating from 1971 to 2024 and documents the organization on international, national, and regional levels.
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Sorrentino (Mary Ann)
The Mary Ann Sorrentino papers about her excommunication from the Catholic Church consist of correspondence, clippings, and other materials. These papers relate to the practice of abortion, the authority of the Catholic Church over its members, and general discussion of religion and morality with respect to abortion. The correspondence with Sorrentino (who was Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island from 1977 to 1987) includes responses from proponents of both the pro-choice and pro-life movements, Catholics, non-Catholics, public officials, and others. The collection also includes an oral history interview of Sorrentino recorded in 2012 and a Master of Arts in History thesis written by Rhonda J. Chadwick about Sorrentino's experiences.
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Tilly (Louise A.)
Louise Tilly, President of the American Historical Association (1993) and the Michael E. Gellert Professor of History and Sociology, New School for Social Research, is an historian who utilizes history and sociology to explore the effects that large-scale social change have on particular constituencies such as women, families, and manual laborers. Much of Tilly's research focuses on how work, food, family systems, and gender were affected by economic and social movements in France and Italy. The Louise A. Tilly papers contain materials ranging from 1960 to 1998, with the bulk of materials dated between 1974 and 1995. This collection of drafts of scholarly papers, research notes and materials, academic department administrative materials, and professional correspondence is arranged into six series.
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Walkowitz (Judith R.)
This collection consists of the professional papers and research materials of Judith R. Walkowitz, scholar of British and women's history and Professor Emerita of Modern European Cultural and Social History at John Hopkins University. The collection documents Walkowitz's writing and research interests of British nineteenth-century political culture and the cultural and social contests over sexuality.
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Williams (Linda)
This collection contains the papers of Linda Williams, Professor Emerita in Film & Media and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. Her academic interests center on Feminist Theory and "body genres," genres designed to elicit a specific physical reaction. These include pornography, melodrama, and horror. Other areas of focus in both research and teachings include "race" films, Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Surrealist cinema, David Lynch, Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel, film theory, musicals, and the HBO series "The Wire." Materials in this collection date from approximately 1945 to 2020 and document her academic career through correspondence, conference materials, teaching, writings, and research. ...more information
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Wylie (Alison)
This collection consists of the professional papers of Alison Wylie, Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. Materials include correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, clippings, and drafts documenting Wylie's interest in feminist archaeology, philosophy, gender equity for women professors, and social justice issues affecting women.
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Wyllys (Samuel)
Annmary Brown Hawkins inherited from her father, Nicholas Brown, a collection of papers compiled by Samuel Wyllys (1631-1709), a Connecticut magistrate and public official who served from 1654 to 1684, along with papers of other members of the Wyllys family. The collection, covering the period from 1638 to 1757 (bulk 1663-1698), comprises half of the original collection; the other portion (covering 1694-1726) was acquired some time ago by the Connecticut State Library from the Estate of John Carter Brown. These early papers pertain to Indian affairs, colonial wars, civil and criminal cases. The witchcraft trials of 1692 to 1693, as revealed in the testimony of witnesses in the Oyer and Terminer Courts, are of particular interest.
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