Gender and Sexuality Studies

A collection of the Library of Congress Research Guides produced as a part of the American Women Series, originally published as American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States (Library of Congress, 2001).

Acquires, conserves, and promotes all documentation which relates to the history of LGBTQ+ organizations and individuals in Quebec to promote diversity and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people and to promote research on sexual and gender minorities and recognize their contribution to the history of Quebec.

The mission of Archivo de la Mermoria Trans (AMT) is to gather and rescue a documentary collection about the life history of the Argentine trans community. The vision is to establish itself as a reference/documentary organization and collective memory of trans identities. AMT contains a collection of more than 15,000 documents from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the 1990s, including photographic, film, sound, journalistic memories, and various pieces such as IDs, passports, letters, notes, police files, magazine articles, and personal diaries.

Collects and maintains collections related to LGBTQ2+ life in Canada, including books, archival papers, artifacts, photographs, and art. Founded in 1973, it has grown to become the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archive in the world.

Includes audio and video recordings of seminar sessions and poetry readings, photographs, letters, and posters that document Audre Lorde's time in Berlin from 1984-1992.

Primarily collects materials that document the lives of and were created by historically marginalized people, including but not exclusive to Black, Indigenous, and people of color; LGBTQ people; and disabled people. Includes the Digital Shange Project, which uses the archive of Ntozake Shange to offer a broader understanding of African diaspora, women’s history, and feminist politics; an integrated study of the performing arts; and the potential for personal transformation.

Created on June 25, 2017 to bring awareness, build Black Lesbian community, educate, and preserve Black Lesbian culture while bridging intergenerational gaps. This hub is for Black Lesbians, allies, and the LGBTQIA+ community to submit articles, posters, flyers, mixtapes, videos, photos, audio, publication, poetry, etc. of Black Lesbians in efforts to preserve the stories of their lives.

Specialized research resource centre with a comprehensive collection of published and unpublished material relating to Indian women, including grey literature, articles, books, annotated bibliographies, statistics, theses, dissertations, conference documents, reports, newspaper clippings, policy documents, and audio-visuals. Maintains the Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Studies in South Asia, which aims to increase the accessibility and availability of resources on women's issues in all South Asian Regions.

Purpose is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Collects materials from anywhere in the world, with a focus on materials created before the year 2000. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, it is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections.

Among the largest and most extensive holdings in the world of materials pertaining to LGBTQ people, occupying more than 4,000 linear feet of storage. Over 1,000 collections include personal papers, organizational records, periodicals, oral histories, photographs, audiovisual recordings, ephemera, artifacts and works of art.

Has one of the largest gay and lesbian collections in a public library (after the San Francisco Public Library).

Founded in 1981 on the belief that knowledge is key to dispelling homophobia and the marginalization of sexual and gender minorities. Gerber/Hart collects, preserves, and makes accessible items related to LGBTQ history and culture. Focused primarily on the Midwest, Gerber/Hart has grown to become one of the larger independent LGBTQ libraries and archives.

Housed in the Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library. Seeks to preserve and make accessible primary sources that document historical shifts in the social construction of sexuality, with a focus on U.S. lesbian and gay history and the politics of pornography.

To address the gaps in archival representation, seeks out, collects, and preserves materials that document the intellectual, political, and cultural contributions of women of color, especially Black women.

The largest LGBTQ-specific archival repository in the upper Midwest, including books, periodicals, grey literature, personal and organizational records, zines and pamphlets, artifacts and ephemera, and audiovisual materials. Although national and international in scope (featuring materials in approximately 58 languages), holdings are especially strong in materials documenting the history of LGBTQ people, organizations, and communities in the Upper Midwest, especially the Twin Cities area.

Largest major archive on the West Coast dedicated to preserving and promoting lesbian and feminist history and culture.

Housed at the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Michigan, a repository for books, magazines, films, videotapes, journals and newspaper articles, unpublished papers, photographs, artwork, letters, personal papers, memorabilia, and ephemera related to trans history.

Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991 as a community archives, library, and museum with the aim to make leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture accessible through research, preservation, education, and community engagement.

Home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities. Begun in 1974 as the private library of lesbian feminists Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel. Holdings range from standard books and publications through unpublished diaries and clippings files to oral histories and videotapes.

First dedicated LGBTQ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQ art and foster the artists who create it. A home for LGBTQ+ artists, scholars, activists and allies, and a catalyst for discourse on art and queerness.

Community-based archive that collects, preserves and makes available to the public the documentation of LGBTQ lives and organizations centered in and around New York. Materials in the collections run from as early as 1878 to the present day, and are made up of a variety of media, including paper, scrapbooks, photographs, audio and video recordings, pamphlets and printed materials, posters and born-digital records. Holdings consist of personal papers created by individuals and records of organizations; periodicals (newspapers and magazines); organization files (printed matter created by organizations for their membership bases) and the organizational records of The Center. Includes the LGBTQuarantine Archive Project Collection, with select contributions posted online at The Center's Google Arts and Culture page.

Founded in 1991 to encourage and facilitate the reading and research of LGBT literature, this is a lending library connected with others around the city, sponsor of a monthly reading group, and producer and/or collaborator for literary events of interest to the LGBT community.

A companion to Man into Woman: A Comparative Scholarly Edition (Bloomsbury 2020). Provides a collation of the four primary editions of Elbe’s narrative published in three languages (Danish, German, and English), as well as the German typescript. Supplemented by archival materials, including letters by Lili Elbe and by and to her editor, Ernst Harthern (a.k.a., Niels Hoyer); articles about Lili Elbe and the Wegeners from Danish newspapers; and chapters on Lili Elbe from Magnus Hirschfeld’s Le Sexe Inconnu (1935) and Hélène Allatini’s memoir Mosaïques (1939).

Goal is to increase the understanding of transgender people and encourage new scholarship by making transgender historical materials available to students, scholars and the public. Includes online photo galleries documenting transgender history.

Audio and transcripts of oral-history interviews conducted with Milwaukee-area individuals who identify as transgender, genderqueer, and/or gender nonconforming.

Founded as a conceptual art project, the mission is to ask audiences to think critically about what a visual history of transgender life could and should look like, and if it’s even possible to compile a comprehensive history of an identity category for which the language is fairly new, sometimes contested, and still rapidly evolving. Includes exhibitions, poster graphics, performances, and a virtual artist residency program.

The only Archive solely dedicated to the history of African American women. The core of the collection is the historic corporate records of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), along with personal papers, and corporate records of organizations mostly associated with the NCNW. These records provide a detailed record of 60 years of the development and operations of this renowned civil rights organization.

Community archive devoted to the collection, preservation, and sharing of trans histories, organized in collaboration with the New York Public Library. Documents transgender resistance and resilience in New York City. Confronts the erasure of trans lives and records diverse histories of gender as intersecting with race and racism, poverty, dis/ability, aging, housing migration, sexism, and the AIDS crisis.

The Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library (NYPL) holds over 100 collections pertaining to the history and culture of gay men and lesbians, and to the history of the AIDS/HIV epidemic.

Located at USC Libraries since 2010, represents the largest repository of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) materials in the world. Founded in 1952, it currently houses over two million archival items including periodicals, books, film, video and audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records, and personal papers. More information on the ONE Archives Foundation, Inc., the independent, community-partner of ONE Archives at USC Libraries.

Founded in 2003 and dedicated to the LGBTQ community in the Ozarks. Includes materials from various local organizations, subject files on issues relevant to the community, local community television programming, and research files of a local LGBTQ scholar. Oral history program has grown to include nearly 200 interviews.

Queer and Trans Work is a course at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized study. As part of the course, students conduct oral histories with current or former employees in an industry chosen by the student. This site shares these stories.

First launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities. Its mission is to establish a "living history" archive of past and present queer zines and to encourage current and emerging zine publishers to continue to create.

Illuminates the lives of American women past and present through its collections, research support, public programming, and exhibitions, all while advancing Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s commitment to women, gender, and society. Includes the Black Women Oral History Project Interviews, 1976–1981.

A component of the Women's Research and Resource Center, preserves the unique history of Spelman College, a Historically Black College for women, as well as the broad experiences of women of the African diaspora. Collections of personal papers include: Spelman College founders Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles; Florence M. Read Collection; Audre Lorde; Selma Burke; Toni Cade Bambara; and other prominent women of African descent.

For three and a half decades, dedicated to protecting, preserving, and promoting the erotic arts so that they receive the academic attention they deserve; educating the public as to the cultural merits of erotic art; and promoting healthier, more tolerant attitudes about sexuality.

Since 2007, committed to the acquisition and preservation of documents, rare publications, and memorabilia that record the history of pioneering activists, community leaders, researchers, and organizations that have contributed to the betterment of trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and other gender-diverse people. Records go back over 120 years and are in 15 languages from 23 countries on six continents. Comprises the largest trans archives in the world.

EZBorrow is a service that allows NYU users to search the combined catalogs of more than 50 research and academic libraries, and request books not available at NYU. EZBorrow is the fastest way to get a book not available from NYU Libraries.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service through which library users can obtain materials (books, articles, and more) from other libraries, at no additional cost.

The Manhattan Research Library Initiative (MaRLI) enables NYU and Columbia doctoral students, full-time faculty and librarians, and approved New York Public Library cardholders to borrow materials from all three institutions.