Highlighting Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections
An international LGBT Conference, May 12-15 in West Hollywood
ALMS 2011 is the third international conference focused on public, private, academic, and grassroots archives collecting and preserving materials of all types from LGBT communities to ensure our history survives unchanged.
Archivists Nicole and Lisa will be presenting research and a case study of successful partnership between Seattle area mainstream collecting institutions and the LGBT community to preserve primary source material and the story of the Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
November 20, 2010
Your Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archivettes have had a wonderful and busy year!
Work continues in Tacoma. Volunteers dig through boxes, uncover personal and organizational herstories and create finding aids so you will know what kinds of treasures are in the Archives. We hope to have the finding aids available on the Washington State Historical Society’s website soon. This year we also applied for grants and tabled at events including Seattle’s annual LGBT Film Festival, the Northwest LGBT Elder Forum, as well as the Washington State History Conference held in Spokane.
Upcoming projects and activities include overhauling and updating our website and designing a new logo for the Archives. We also hope to launch the PNLA Attics and Basements tour soon. We will travel around Washington State and spread the word about the Archives and find out what kinds of lesbian herstory is out there in attics and basements, closets and garages that should be preserved in the Archives. Stay tuned for more info about how you can help!
Thanks to your generous contributions, two of us will be attending the 3rd LGBT ALMS (Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections) conference this May and hope to present about our successful collaboration with WSHS. At the conference we will network with other LGBT archives and learn the newest methods to preserve and provide access to LGBT archival materials.
Speaking of collaborations, our partnership with PS OLOC (Puget Sound branch of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) has been such a wonderful part of this year. PNLA receives a copy of the Pacific Northwest herstories that OLOC’s oral herstory project produces. It’s an amazing project and you can check it out here: http://www.olohp.org/. We are enjoying our connections and the resources that this group knows about, as well as developing personal relationships with our Lesbian elders.
Wishing you peace, prosperity, joy and knowledge this holiday season and into 2011!
With good cheer,
Your friends at the Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives
GREAT BIG WONDERFUL NEWS!
The Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives has a HOME!
On Saturday, May 16th 2009 PNLA moved to the Washington State Historical Society (WSHS) in Tacoma, Washington. The Archives, in cooperation with WSHS will continue to function. PNLA will scout out herstorical materials in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Southwestern British Columbia and make sure they are properly preserved and accessible for research and enjoyment at WSHS. When collections have been processed, an electronic record will be produced and available via the WSHS website telling you more about each collection in the Archives. The PNLA website and email contacts will continue to be up and running. On our website you will find current and past event information, announcements and subscription to our email list.
We are still getting settled in our new home! Any written correspondence and financial donations can still be sent to our PO Box.
We still need volunteers to help process the collection. If you are available Tue-Fri 9-4 and have basic archival skills and an interest in preserving lesbian herstory, please contact PNLA. We do ask for a regular ongoing commitment.
When we’'re settled we would like to offer a “house-warming” tour at WSHS so you can check out our new digs and see some of the amazing materials that make up the PNLA collection. We’ will keep you posted.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in PNLA.
Most Sincerely,
Lisa Cohen
Founder/Co-Director
Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives
PNLA in the Press
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Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives get international coverage! Check us out in Curve Magazine - Saving Our Herstory.
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Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives were featured in the March 2008 issue of Seattle Woman - Trailblazers: Four Women Leading the Way.
