Lesbian and Gay Archivist

Our newsletter -- since 1977

The Archives began publishing its own newsletter -- originally called Gay Archivist -- in May 1977. It became Lesbian and Gay Archivist with Number 11, February 1995. All issues are listed below, with major articles and news reports noted for each one. The full text of each issue is available online. Skip to issue from: -- select year -- 1977 1978 1979 1981 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2001 2002 2004 2005

Number 1, May 1977 (full text)

Headlined "Archives in Fourth Year," the first issue offers a brief history, and stories on:

• The growing gay periodical collection -- 250 titles, the earliest from the 1950s.
• Clippings -- more than 4,000 from 120 Canadian newspapers -- charting media treatment of gay people.
• Some current research efforts, and more to come.

This issue also notes the 80th anniversary, on May 15, of the 1897 founding of "the first activist gay organization" -- German pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. [For notice of a major celebration of the 100th anniversary, running May 17 to Aug 17, 1997 in Berlin, see News & events.]

Number 2, May 1978 (full text)

Lead story: "Police Raid Archives" -- on the Dec 30, 1977 sweep of the office shared with The Body Politic, after the magazine published an article called "Men Loving Boys Loving Men." [For more see the Historical overview page of the Inventory of the Records of The Body Politic and Pink Triangle Press, available here online.] Also featured in this issue:

• The photograph collection, growing from TBP's photo files and other donations.
• Audiotapes, with some recent acquisitions noted.
• New accessions of records from eight organizations and nine individuals.
• Items uncovered by researcher Jacques Briand on homosexuality in New France.

Number 3, June 1979 (full text)

The Archives launches its Publication Series, with Alex Spence's Homosexuality in Canada: A Bibliography. [For all titles, see What we've published.] Collections highlighted here:

• Non-gay periodicals: "Popular and scientific periodicals and non-Canadian newspapers" -- more than 500 titles to date. [See General periodicals for the collection today.]
• The Library: In two years "one shelf of books has expanded to overflow fifteen; 25 items are now 700."
• Records: The Archives now holds all official records of six Canadian organizations.

This issue also notes indexes begun (on cards) for The Body Politic and the photo collection, and a lot of microfilming -- following donation of a 16-mm microfilm camera.

Number 4, September 1981 (full text)

An 8-page issue (previous ones had been 4), this is the first to augment the Archives' name with the tag line: "National Archives for Lesbians and Gay Men." It reports the Archives' incorporation on Mar 31, 1980 as an independent, non-profit organization -- and later denial by Revenue Canada of charitable status. An appeal is planned. Also here:

• New acquisitions: The records of nine groups across Canada are now in the Archives. It has acquired extensive material on -- and by -- artist Ronald McRae. The Library has reached 1,500 volumes, including some rare Walt Whitman editions; the lesbian and gay periodical collection has more than 1,100 titles.
• A list of 50 related archives and libraries around the world; and 19 community-based history projects, including the new Lesbian and Gay History Group of Toronto.
• A bibliography of lesbian and gay research, noting more than 80 books and articles.
• Stories recovered from history -- on Frederick Philip Grove, Flora MacDonald Denison, Elizabeth Smart, and others -- from 1877 to 1945.
• Reports on events co-sponsored by the Archives: the "Whitman in Ontario" conference (with Michael Lynch), Toronto, Oct 18, 1980 [see The Body Politic, Oct 1980]; and Allan Bérubé's slide lecture, "Marching to a Different Drummer" (with Gays at the University of Toronto), Nov 1980.
• Announcement of two new titles in the Archives Publication Series -- bringing the total to four -- and of office space expanded in May 1980, from 100 to 400 square feet.

Number 5, June 1986 (full text)

After a long (and busy) break, Gay Archivist returns with nearly five years of news:

• Charitable status had been granted in Nov 1981. Private donations make up 70 percent of revenue, supplementing grants beginning in 1981 from the Gay Community Appeal of Toronto.
• The Archives moved, still with The Body Politic, to new space in Jan 1984. Holdings now fill 400 metres of shelving -- double the volume of 1981. There are more than 100 large accessions of records; 3,000 books; 7,600 vertical files; 80,000 clippings; 400 new photographs since 1981 and more than 1,850 lesbian and gay periodical titles.
• The Publication Series has reached 11 titles. A second, expanded edition of Homosexuality in Canada, released in 1984, had been financed by a $17,400 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
• Toronto had seen two international gay and lesbian history conferences (out of only three held by then anywhere in the world): "Wilde '82", sponsored by the Archives during the summer 1982 "Doing It!" gathering; and "Sex and the State: Their Laws, Our Lives", in conjunction with the International Gay Association Conference, Jul 1985. [For extensive reports on each, see The Body Politic, Sep 1982 and Sep 1985, as well as other holdings in the Archives.]
• Further international attention had come in Jul 1985, when the Australian Gay Archives Newsletter called the Canadian Gay Archives "the pre-eminent gay archives in the world."

James Fraser, key figure in the Archives' success since 1976, had departed for Vancouver in Aug 1983. He died there, of AIDS, in Mar 1985. The James Fraser Library is named in his honour.

Number 6, June 1988 (full text)

The Body Politic has been gone since early 1987; the Archives has moved again, to 1,000 square feet of space on Yonge Street, next door to Pink Triangle Press -- both renting from the AIDS Committee of Toronto. This issue also reports:

• A Jun 3 screening of Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet, a benefit for the Archives with a sell-out crowd -- including Vito himself.
• Work on a computer-generated card catalogue for the 3,500-volume James Fraser Library.
• Completion of the Archives' "first comprehensive analysis of a large collection" -- an inventory of The Body Politic's records [now expanded and available here online], financed by a federal government grant.
• Receipt of 54 new accessions since Jun 1986, with "significant additions in the areas of political activism, journalism, health, student organizations, and the arts."
• A "massive increase of information on the activities of the gay and lesbian community in the fight against AIDS," creating what was (at the time) "probably the largest collection of AIDS material in the country."

Number 7, June 1989 (full text)

The cover of this issue shows copies of Gay and Two, magazines first published in Toronto in 1964, and heralds Our Silver Anniversary: Canadians have been organizing for twenty-five years! The article also highlights Canada's earliest known gay group, Vancouver's Association for Social Knowledge (ASK), founded in early 1964. Also reported on here:

• Archives users: Since Jun 1988, 320 people had visited to do research -- up from 188 the year before.
• New books in the James Fraser Library: More than 500 had been added in the previous year. Ten "scarce or unusual" titles are highlighted, including two by John Addington Symonds from 1896 and 1901 -- each published in editions of only 100 copies.
• Sound recordings: "What went from 60 to 660 in ten minutes? Our holdings of records." A Dec 1988 donation included "Canadian, British, American and even a few West German and Japanese pressings of the works of over sixty recording artists and groups." [See Notes on sound for earlier and later acquisitions of sound recordings.]
• Grants: From the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal, and from the Canadian Council of Archives and the Kimeta Society, jointly financing work to catalogue the Archives' collection of 1,300 posters.

Number 8, April 1990 (full text)

This issue opens with Morag Carnie's Posters in the CGA, an overvew of the collection and her work on an inventory of its holdings. Among recent acquisitions noted in other collections:

• Two-hundred-nine separate donations in 1989, some "running to several metres in extent," with many newer gay and lesbian organizations offering their records for the first time.
• The first 29 issues of Muscle Builder, 1924-1926, augmenting the Archives' rare collection of "physique" magazines, most from the '50s and '60s. Lesbian and gay periodical holdings now cover 3,000 titles, including nearly full runs of Amazon Quarterly (1972 - 1975) and The Ladder (1956 - 1972), donated by Jane Rule.
• A 114-page memoir and guide by Peter Zorzi, on Toronto Area Gays (TAG; later TAGL), titled What We Did and Why We Did It (From the Cheap Seats at the Revolution: A Monologue on TAG in the 1970s, With Entertaining Supplementary Harangues). [See Records: Inventories for a further description!]

Number 9, June 1991 (full text)

This issue marks the 10th anniversary of the notorious Toronto bath raids of Feb 1981 with a cover feature, Remembering the RTPC -- the Right to Privacy Committee, first set up after an earlier raid, in Dec 1978. The RTPC had disbanded Feb 9, 1991, turning over its records to the Archives. Also here:

• A feature on the records of another major group, the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT, 1970 - 1977).
• Reflections on the "total archives" -- collecting both personal and organizational records, and many "highly visible symbols of lesbian and gay pride, especially buttons, T-shirts, and banners, that would normally be found in museums if they documented heterosexual activities." Readers are urged to get in touch before throwing things out: "Your garbage might be our gold."
• Notice of a conference set for Nov 1992: "Lesbians and Gays in Montreal: Histories, Cultures, and Societies."
• Recent additions to the James Fraser Library: More than 30 titles are featured, including five from a small but growing collection of lesbian pulp novels from the '50s and '60s.
• Planning a holiday? The Archives highlights eight up-to-date travel guides.
• Two more titles are added to the Publication Series, bringing the total to 13. [One of them is the 1991 edition of the lesbian and gay periodical directory Our Own Voices -- updated and available here online.]

Number 10, November 1992 (full text)

"Reorganization and Renewal at the CGA." The Archives announces its new constitution, adopted May 3, 1992, and runs a group picture of its new nine-member Board of Directors. Brief bios of them appear inside. So does news of another move -- set for Dec 1992 -- to 2,000 square feet at 56 Temperance Street. Other items:

• The new Board is working on a five-year plan. "The majority of our funds will likely come from the communities whose histories we preserve." The 1992-93 budget shows $41,860 in projected revenue -- with a surplus, after expenses, of $80.
• Chris Halonen has completed an indexed guide to more than 4,500 photos, dating from 1927 to 1987. [See Photographs: Inventories.] The project was financed by a $10,395 grant from the Canadian Council of Archives and $1,250 from the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal.
• Film Makers and the CGA: The Archives has provided historical background and display materal for five major Canadian films: Forbidden Love, Legal Memory, Memo from Church Street, One in Ten, and Thank God I'm a Lesbian.
• Microfiche copies of many gay, lesbian, and feminist periodicals have been acquired, produced by the Canadian Women's Movement Archives -- which has also published a guide to its holdings, 1960 to 1990.

This issue also has two feature articles: The Record of AIDS, a historical summary noting related material in the Archives; and The Gay Periodical Press in Eastern Europe.

Number 11, February 1995 (full text)

This is the first issue to be called Lesbian and Gay Archivist -- following a formal change of name, to Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, in Sep 1993. After another break (and a serious cash squeeze), it is headlined: "Building the New Archives." Three key issues are being addressed: "financial requirements, attracting new people and skills, and developing a bold strategy -- a vision and a plan -- for the future." [See Number 12, available online, for follow-up.] Also in this issue:

• Financial goals: In 1994 the Board adopted a clear goal: "to transform the Archives into a sustainable, and self-sustaining, community organization." Fundraising appeals since had met with positive response. A $12,000 one-year operating grant from the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal had been announced in Nov 1994.
• Profiles of three new volunteers, all recruited in 1994.
• Out of the Archives: Pieces marking the centenary of Oscar Wilde's trial and imprisonment in May 1895 (with related archival holdings noted); and the release in Jan 1995 of Fiction and Other Truths: A Film about Jane Rule. The premiere screening was a benefit for the Archives, which had provided much visual material for the film.
• Archival treasures: Items highlighted from various collections -- everything from an 1860 edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, to the 1957 Wolfenden Report (basis for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Britain), to a floor plan of Toronto's Romans II Sauna (1964 - 1988).
• Notice of a major upcoming exhibit on gay and lesbian histories in Toronto since 1975, called "Pass It On!" [The three-month showing, including a lecture series, was a big success. See a report in Number 12.]
• In Memoriam: remembering 20 supporters of the Archives. Previous issues had named nearly 50 other people, most lost to AIDS. The personal papers of a number of them are now held in the Archives.

Number 12, June 1996 (full text)

• a new logo for the Archives, by designer Denis Benoit
• strengthening the organization: fundraising, communications, community profile
• "Pass It On": exhibition of lesbian and gay history
• documentary of gay pioneers Jim Eagan and Jack Nesbit
• electronic and print resources for lesbian and gay periodicals
• notable accessions duirng 1995
• Don McLeod's book: Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Annotated Chronology 1964-1975

Number 13, September 1997 (full text)

• challenges for the Archives: volunteers, space, funding
• Archives' second year as beneficiary of the Pride and Remembrance Run fundraiser
• lesbian material at the Archives
• volunteer profile: Lori Turnbull
• new accession: records of Vancouver's "Coming Out" radio programme (1978-1986)

Number 14, June 1998 (full text)

• celebration of the Archives' 25th anniversary: exhibit of original portraits of 25 Canadian lesbians and gays who have contributed to the growth of an out and proud community
• Toronto Women's Bookstore turns 25
• new accession: Svend Robinson's papers
• lesbian and gay periodicals on microfilm

Number 15, August 1999 (full text)

• opening of "25 Lives" exhibit; Archives honoured in 1998 Pride Day parade
• thanks to Pride and Remembrance run for 3 year sponsorship
• long term objective setting by Archives' Board
• research by Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile into anti-gay, anti-lesbian security campaign in Canadian federal civil service and military, 1940 - 1960

Number 16, Spring 2001 (full text)

• Archives welcomes its new president, Matt Hughes
• volunteer appreciation garden party
• collection of physique magazines
• volunteer profile: Gerry King
• flood in Archives' offsite storage location

Number 17, November 2001 (full text)

• CLGA Garden Party
• CLGA co-sponsors Plowright Competition
• Our Human Rights Case: Human Rights Commission finds in our favour
• Archives Outgrowing Current Space
• Auditor's Report
• this year's nominations for National Portrait Collection
• Donate as a Tax Shelter!
• Volunteer profile: Carla Agnesi
• Friday Photo Display from CLGA's extensive photo collection
• CLGA co-sponsors a special presentation of scholarly lectures, jointly entitled Passion in Prose: Love Letters from the Queer Past
• How Do We Know Acquisitions Are Queer-Related?
• Open House
• In Memoriam

Number 18, March 2002 (full text)

• Five Year Plan for the Archives
• Physique Photography of Alan B. Stone
• Annual General Meeting
• donor profile: Dr. Eldon Hay
• memorial for past CLGA president Catherine J. Shepard, 1950-2002
• CLGA fundraiser at Zelda's
• Neil Richards, our man in Saskatchewan
• recent acquisitions
• summary of CLGA vertical files
• National Lesbian and Gay Portrait Collection to be shown at CCHS prizegiving ceremony
• Craig Russell honoured in National Portrait Collection
  CLGA "thank you" party for volunteers, donors, activists, Board and committee members
• report from CLGA website committee
• open house and book sale
• in memoriam

Number 19, Autumn 2002 (full text)

• profile of some of this year's National Portrait Collection Inductees
• Bowling for SOY: CLGA participates in fundraiser for queer youth organization
• profile of Duncan McLaren, Micropublisher and Photographer
• Annual General Meeting
• Bless Me, Sister!: interview with Harold Desmarais, member of Toronto's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

Number 20, Spring 2004 (full text)

• The St-Charles Tavern
• Acquisitions
• Queer as Punk, an Interview with Scott Treleaven and Will Munro
• In An Unsafe Place: Toronto's Public Protests 1972-1981
• And They Said It Couldn't Be Done: National Protrait Gallery Ceremony
• Ken Popert and The Body Politic: 30 Years On
• A Time for Volunteers
• Books in the Archive's Collection
• 31 Years Ago: Liberation Across the Nation, excerpts from Don MacLeod's Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Annotated Chronicle

Number 21, Spring 2005 (full text)

• Meet The Board of Directors
• Evergon
• All That Matters - Wayson Choy's Sense of Place in Time
• Lesbian Conferences
• Small, Big, Smart, Sassy, Downright Dirty: Queer Zines
• A Family Home
• The Archives’ First General Manager