As a part of the lesbian community, we all express the desire to learn about and know our history and culture. Feeling seen and heard, feeling connected to our past, fuels our senses of solidarity and belonging. When for so long queer history has been erased and marginalised in dominant society, it is difficult to know where to begin in educating ourselves and finding the right resources.
Luckily, today there exists so many platforms (both online and irl) for the preservation of lesbian history and knowledge, many of which are easily accessible. To make this access easier, we have prepared a compilation of sources for you to browse. Happy learning lesbians!
Museums / Archives and Digital Collections
The Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York
LHA is the world’s oldest archive dedicated to lesbian history, located at 484 14th Street, Brooklyn, New York. It is also one of the largest archives with a mission of ‘ensur[ing] future generations will have ready access to materials relevant to their lives’. If you’re lucky enough to be based in NYC, you can visit the archive via appointment. If not, however, from 2010 the LHA began digitising materials to offer further accessibility to this history.
Thus, the Herstories Audio/Visual Collection contains over 3000 oral history cassettes and 950 videotapes available to you today.
The Bishopsgate Institute, London
The Bishopsgate Institute is home to a large collection of LGBTQ resources, including the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archives and the Museum of Transology. Again, if you’re not able to visit the archives in person, you can delve into some of the histories online. Or, the Museum of Transology digital collection.
Queer Zine Archive Project, Milwaukee
Founded in 2003, this archive hopes to make queer zines available to queer historians, or anyone interested in subcultural media production. Take a look at their website.
If you like this article you may like to read our interviews with queer women, ‘Meet Leila Davis, a.k.a Cutie Cutie Whippingham.’
Queer Britain, London
This is the first UK national museum dedicated to LGBTIA+ history. Although small, the collection available to view at 2 Granary Square, London is a touching telling of queer power and perseverance in Britain. On their website Queer Britain also offers a digital archive entitled Virtually Queer, a three-part oral history project.
Queering the Map
Not an archive of traditional sorts, this is a community generated mapping platform that allows anyone to submit their queer stories in relation to their geographical setting. Some really emotional entries remind us that queer community is, and always has been, alive all over the globe.
BFI LGBT Britain
The British Film Institute offers an online archive of on-screen representations of LGBTQIA+ lives from the 20th and 21st centuries – and many of them you can watch for free!
GLBTQ Encyclopedia Project
Although now closed to new entries, this project was founded in 2000 and sought to be the world’s largest online encyclopedia of queer culture and history. It’s archives run from 2003-2013, cover a huge range of topics and are still available to view for free.
Brown University LGBTQ Centre
The website run by Brown University has an expansive list of queer libraries, archives, films and literature, more applicable to North American audiences.
Royal Historical Society, Historical Transactions
This blog also offers many more suggestions for resources of all kinds.
Books:
- Stone Butch Blues (2003), Leslie Feinberg
- An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality and Lesbian Public Culture (2003), Ann Cvetkovich
- A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex between Women since 1500 (2007), Rebecca Jennings
- Your Silence Will Not Protect You, (2017), Audre Lorde, Preface by Reni Eddo-Lodge and introduction by Sara Ahmed
- The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, vols 1 & 2, (2010), Helena Whitbread
- Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers (1991), Lillia Faderman
- Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women (2009), Leila J. Rupp
- After Sappho (2022), Selly Wynn Schwartz
- Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, (2019) Saidiya Hartman
- We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir (2019), Samra Habib
- No Modernism Without Lesbians (2020), Diana Souhami
- Hijabi Butch Blues: A Memoir (2023), Lamya H
- A Short History of Queer Women (2022), Kirsty Loehr
- Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980), Adrienne Rich
- The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For (2008), Alison Bechel
- Chelsea Girls (2016), Eileen Myles
- Female Masculinity (2019), Jack Halberstam
- 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World (2023), Seán Hewitt and Luke Edward Hall
- How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective (2017), Keeanga-Yamahtta (eds).
Academic Journals
- GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies.
- Journal of the History of Sexuality.
- Journal of Lesbian Studies.
Films
- The Watermelon Woman (1996)
- Saving Face (2004)
- Stud Life (2012)
- Floored by Love (2002)
- Pride (2014)
- Blue Jean (2022)
- If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
- The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995)
- The Aggressives (2005)
- B.D. Women (short film, 1994)
- Black Womyn: Conversations with Lesbians of African Descent (2008)
- Rebel Dykes (2021)
- A Secret Love (2020)
- Where Have All The Lesbians Gone? (2022)
- Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
- Old Lesbians (2020)
- Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community (1984)
We hope our suggestions give you a good start in your lesbian history research! There are so many resources and so much to learn from our community.
Love Team Nonchalant xx
Hii I’m Mads (they/them)! I’m an anthropology graduate who is passionate about queer politics and countering intersectional oppression through communal practices of queer joy!
Writing for Nonchalant is to me a way to help keep our community connected, informed about moments of cultural significance, and up to date with events that help foster solidarity amongst us!
