LibGuides: LGBTQ+ Resources in Special Collections: Online primary sources

Open Access Resources

ACT UP Oral History Project
Collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.

Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony
Collection of interviews and broadcasts of people who presently or at one time identified as same-sex and same-gender attracted women.

Country Queers
Oral history project documenting the experiences of rural and small town LGBTQIA folks in the US.

Digital Transgender Archive
Online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.

GLBT Historical Society - Online Collections
Selected digitized material, includes oral history projects, broadcast recordings, video recordings of recreational events, organizational records and personal papers.

Lesbian Herstory Archives - Audio/Visual Collections
Oral histories and other recordings about lesbians and their communities.

LGBT History Project of Central Pennsylvania
Collaborative project between the LGBT Center of Central PA and the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections documenting LGBT life and activism in the greater central Pennsylvania region.

LGBTQ Religious Archives Network
Online hub for archives preserving LGBT religious history. Includes over 40 oral histories of LGBTQ+ religious leaders.

ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives
Selected digitized material, includes periodicals, photographs, artworks, organizational records and personal papers.

Out of the Closet: A Collection of Early LGBTQ+ Fiction
Collection of audio recordings of 22 LGBTQ+ stories published between 1841-1923.

Queer Appalachia Oral History Project
Oral history project about stories of gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, and questioning individuals who grew up, and/or currently live in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) designated Central Appalachian Region, especially Eastern Kentucky.

Queer Indonesia Archive
Community focused digital archiving project documenting queer life in Indonesia. Includes community publications, photographs, periodicals, posters, and oral histories.

Still Bisexual
Bisexual education and health advocacy organization, includes over 100 short video interviews.

Speaking Out: LGBT Veterans
Oral history project of LGBT veterans who served from the WWII era to the present.

Stone Butch Blues
20th anniversary author’s edition of Stone Butch Blues available for free via the author's website.

Queer Zine Archive
Searchable database providing access to the historical canon of queer zines.

Resources for MSU-affiliated users only

Alternative Press Index and Archive This link opens in a new window Covers journals, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 700 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Born of the New Left, the database was launched in 1969 to provide access to the emerging theories and practices of radical social change.
Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window Archives of Sexuality & Gender, the largest collection available in support of the study of gender and sexuality, enables scholars to make new connections in LGBTQ history and activism, cultural studies, psychology, health, political science, policy studies, and other related areas of research. Includes: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I & II; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture; and L'Enfer de la Bibilothèque Nationale de France.
Archives Unbound Collections This link opens in a new window African America, Communists, and the National Negro Congress 1933-1947 The American Indian Movement and Native American Radicalism The Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) Confederate Newspapers: A Collection from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman FBI File: Assassination of Martin Luther King, JR. FBI File on John L. Lewis Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 Federal Surveillance of the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño Feminism in Cuba, 1898-1958 Final Accountability Rosters of Japanese-American Relocation Centers, 1944-1946 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945 Global War on Terrorism Grassroots Civil Rights & Social Activism: FBI Files on Benjamin J. Davis, Jr. Grassroots Civil Rights and Social Action: Council for Social Action La Guerra Espanola (The Spanish Civil War) Holocaust Studies collections The Homophile Movement: Papers of Donald Stewart Lucas, 1941-1976 International Climatic Changes and Global Warming The International Women's Movement: The Pan Pacific/Southeast Asia Women's Association, 1950-1985 International Women’s Periodicals, 1786-1933: Social and Political Issues Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life Liberation Movement in Africa and African America Minority Voter, Election of 1936 and the Good Neighbor League National Farm Worker Ministry: Mobilizing Support for Migrant Workers, 1939-1985 The Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, 1981 Politics, Social Activism, and Community Support: Selected Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and Newsletters Public Housing, Racial Policies, and Civil Rights Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Enforcement of Federal Law in the South Reporting on the Coal Industry Republic of New Afrika Revolution in Honduras and American Business: The Quintessential "Banana Republic" Sunday School Movement and Its Curriculum Tiananmen Square and U.S. - China Relations, 1989-1993 War of 1812: Diplomacy on the High Seas War on Poverty and the Office of Economic Opportunity "We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death": Freedom Riders in the South, 1961
Defining Gender (1450-1910) This link opens in a new window Defining Gender, 1450-1910 provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.
Independent Voices from Reveal Digital This link opens in a new window Project to digitize over 1 million pages from the magazines, journals and newspapers of the alternative press archives of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
LGBT Magazine Archive‎ (1954 - 2015) This link opens in a new window Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. Note: content is still being added as of the launch in September 2018.
LGBT Studies in Video This link opens in a new window This interdisciplinary online video collection (Parts 1 and 2) includes more than 500 titles focusing on the cultural, social, and political impact of the LBGTQ experience from the twentieth century to the present.
LGBT Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day. The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community with content including selections from The National Archives in Kew, materials collected by activist and publisher Tracy Baim from the mid-1980s through the mid-2000s, the Magnus Hirschfeld and Harry Benjamin collections from the Kinsey Institute, periodicals such as En la Vida and BLACKlines, select rare works from notable LGBT publishers including Alyson Books and Cleis Press, as well as mainstream trade and university publishers.
Sex & Sexuality This link opens in a new window This collection explores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. Investigate the breadth and complexity of human sexual understanding through the work of leading American sexologists, sex researchers, organizations and the public consciousness. Includes: Module I: Research Collections from The Kinsey Institute Library & Special Collections Module II: Self-Expression, Community and Identity
Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America—vividly conveying the zeitgeist of the decade and its effects into the middle of the next. Alongside 75,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories, there are more than 75,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials—150,000 pages total upon completion. The collection is further enhanced by dozens of scholarly document projects, featuring richly annotated primary-source content that is analyzed and contextualized through interpretive essays by leading historians.
Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Gender, Sex, and the Family This link opens in a new window Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Gender, Sex, and the Family allows students and researchers to immerse themselves in the values and behaviors of Americans of the past. The collection provides a window into American social history by bringing together the instructional, prescriptive, behavioral, and etiquette literature that defined standards of personal conduct for millions of Americans and reflected the prevailing social mores across the twentieth century. When complete, the collection will contain 150,000 pages of fully searchable handbooks, manuals, textbooks, etiquette guides, self-help books, instructional pamphlets, and how-to books that illustrate both how Americans actually behaved and how they felt they ought to behave.
Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window Gender Studies Database combines NISC's popular Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases with the coverage of sexual diversity issues. GSD covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. The source documents indexed include professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations and other sources. Several hundred links provide access to carefully selected and important websites. This database includes more than 696,750 records with coverage spanning from 1972 and earlier to present.

MSU Libraries

Research Guides

LGBTQ+ Resources in Special Collections

Open Access Resources

Resources for MSU-affiliated users only