SPRING 2014
LANGSDALE LINK
PAGE 5
GLCCB Archives Comes to Langsdale By Aiden Faust
W
e are proud to welcome the archives of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland to Langsdale Library Special Collections. Founded in 1977, the GLCCB has been serving Baltimore’s gay community from its 241 W. Chase Street address since 1980. But after more than three decades in their current headquarters, the GLCCB is in the process of preparing to move.
With this change on the horizon, GLCCB volunteers formed an archives committee and sought a community partner to help safeguard their collection of historically important records, including a near-complete set of Baltimore’s Gay Life newspapers from 1979 to the present. Ben Blake, head of Langsdale’s Special Collections, explains: “These newspapers provide a core framework for exploring the history of the community, from the decade after Stonewall [the watershed gay-rights protest in New York City] through to the present.â€? GLCCB volunteers will work alongside Langsdale archivists to organize, describe and provide access to these primary resources. According to Blake, the collection will remain open for research use even during processing, something that’s unusual for archives. “We want to provide as much access to researchers and memEHUV RI WKH FRPPXQLW\ DV SRVVLEOH JLYHQ WKH KLVWRULFDO VLJQLĂŻcance of these materials,â€? Blake said. “This is the most important archive of gay history in Baltimore.â€? In addition to working with the GLCCB on its existing archives, Special Collections hopes to continue to collect materials dealing with the history of gay life in Baltimore from the 1960s and ’70s to compliment the collection’s strengths in the 1980s and ’90s. “This should be viewed as an ongoing program,â€? Blake said. The members of the GLCCB’s archives committee are actively interested in working with volunteers to help with the archiving project. In addition to sorting through the existing collection, the group is looking for anyone who can donate materials to KHOS ĂŻOO LQ JDSV LQ WKH FROOHFWLRQ LQFOXGLQJ HGLWLRQV RI Gay Life missing from the archive. Monetary donations to the GLCCB for the archives project are also welcome. With additional
resources, the group hopes to digitize the complete run of Gay Life newspaper. In addition to the work of the GLCCB archives committee, the center recently celebrated its 35th anniversary and participated in a local oral-history project. The project, coordinated by Denise Duarte, a graduate student in the Community Arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art and GLCCB artist in residence, is available online at http://www.glccb.org/ lgbt-history-project. Archivists and librarians at Langsdale are enthusiastic about working with the GLCCB on such an important aspect of central Maryland’s social history. For more information about the collection, contact Ben Blake, head of Special Collections, at bblake@ubalt.edu. To volunteer or donate to the GLCCB, send a note to info@ glccb.org.