Exploring the Rainbow History Project Collection

The overall collection comprises materials documenting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered (LGBT+) communities in the greater Washington, D.C., area and U.S.

The collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, periodicals, personal papers, pamphlets, articles, case briefings, committee reports, select objects, and ephemera relating to topics such as discrimination, politics, LGBT organizations and leaders, HIV and AIDS, the Quilt Project, and community organizations.

Each collection donated to the Rainbow History Project and subsequently transferred to the DC History Center becomes a series within the Rainbow History Project collection (MS 0764).

Here is the finding aid for the collection overall, which includes links to finding aids for individual series.

Includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, magazines, pamphlets and articles. (.5 cubic feet)

Includes newspaper clippings, case briefings and articles. David L. Aiken was born in Mt. Tabor, New Jersey and educated at Parsippany High School and the University of Chicago. Aiken arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1968 as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. He worked as an editor and a journalist for the Joint Center for Political Studies, Editorial Experts, Princeton University, and the Advocate. He also edited the newsletter of the D.C. chapter of Black and White Men Together in the 1980s. Aiken was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front – DC and of Stonewall Nation Media Collective (SNMC). He was a broadcaster for SNMC’s Friend’s Radio program from 1973 to 1982. In 1974, he helped form the Washington Area Gay Community Council (WAGCC), which he served as president and as editor of Just Us, WAGCC’s guide to the local gay community. David Aiken died of AIDS on December 31, 1986. (1 cubic foot)

Includes committee reports, ephemera, newspaper clippings and program announcements. From 1981 to 1993, the Gay Women's Alternative of D.C. served as an essential educational and social focus for the metropolitan area's lesbian community. The organization dedicated itself to presenting an alternative to the closet and to the bars for the area's women, by providing lectures, social events, and discussions, often at the Washington Ethical Society. GWCDC became known for its dances for women, particularly its signature Spring Cotillion, and for its involvement with other women's events in the area including the summer Sisterfire musical extravaganzas and the Passages conferences. In 1985, GWA-DC presented its first conference. The initial organizers included Ina Alterman, Trish Bangert, Bonnie Becker, Susan Geiger, Maryl Kerley, Ann Meltzer, Lil Russo, and Joyce Sideman. By 1993, facing competition from a growing array of competing lesbian organizations, the demands of running a major social organization, and the group's inability to meet speakers' and performers' growing requests for payment (GWA had
from the outset determined not to pay such fees), the board of Gay Women's Alternative decided to close down the organization following its final Spring Cotillion in May 1993. (1.5 cubic feet)

Includes newspaper clippings, case briefings and articles. Bruce C Pennington was born in Rugby, North Dakota on September 17, 1947, and died in Washington, D.C. on August 26, 2003. He arrived in Washington in 1968 to work initially for Liberation News Service. He was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front (1970-1974), founding member of the Stonewall Nation Media Collective, producers of the Friends radio program on WGTB-FM and WPFW-FM (1973-1982), board member of Black and White Men Together-DC (1980-1984), and vice president of the Rainbow History Project (2000-2003). He served on the Washington, D.C. Human Rights Commission (1988-1991). Pennington worked professionally as a chef and restaurant manager and a teacher of English; he also served as a foster parent to a gay youth. The series consists of personal correspondence and photographs; career resumes, diplomas, and school documents; topical files and documents including the Gay Liberation Front-DC; business files, manuscripts, and newsletters from his tenure as president of Black and White Men Together-DC; files of Names Project memorabilia and obituaries of prominent members of the Washington, DC community, and drafts of articles for The Advocate. (3 cubic ft.; 8 containers, including one 15x22x2 oversize)

Includes clippings, memos, correspondence, and brochure drafts. In February 2003, the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services hired Kenda Kirby, a former Oklahoma firefighter and emergency medical technician, to be a trainer and coordinator for the Tyra Hunter Human Diversity Training Series, which takes its name from a trans car-crash victim who died in 1995. The series comprises materials relating to her role with D.C. Fire/EMS as a trainer on gay sensitivity issues and her subsequent dismissal from Fire/EMS in 2004. (1 cubic foot)

Includes copies of outgoing correspondence, news clippings, legal proceedings, ephemeral publications, flyers, press releases, and other documents generated by the activities of various homophile organizations, many of which Gittings was a member. A significant number of the items in this collection document the joint activities of Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny in their efforts to secure basic civil liberties for lesbians and gay men. The largest gathering of materials relate to the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and the various homophile organization confederations of which it was a constituent member, such as East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO), Eastern Regional Homophile Conference (ERCH), Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO), and North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO). Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) was a prominent American activist for gay equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1965, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government. Gittings challenged the Daughters of Bilitis' conservative leadership by publishing an article by Kameny that urged readers to "move away from the comfortingly detached respectability of research into the often less pleasant rough-and-tumble of political and social activism." In response to her publishing this article, the Daughters of Bilitis leadership removed her as editor of The Ladder in 1965. Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her lifetime work with libraries. In the 1970s, Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, forming the first gay caucus in a professional organization, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1972. Her self-described life mission was to tear away the "shroud of invisibility" related to homosexuality that associated it with crime and mental illness. She was awarded a lifetime membership in the American Library Association, and the ALA named an annual award for the best gay or lesbian novel the The Barbara Gittings Award. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) also named an activist award for her. (1 cubic foot)

Includes organizational records of the D.C. Chapter of BMWT, a gay, interracial group committed to ending discrimination. The records date from 1981-2003, with the bulk of the records falling between 1984 and 2000. The files are comprised of financial records, chapter and national organization activities, and the group’s newsletters, related to efforts to confront, and end, racism and discrimination in the gay community. (3 cubic feet)

Includes personal papers (including photographs, albums, wedding and funeral announcements), as well as biographical materials and some of his poetry and short stories--including multiple drafts. There are several large scrapbooks including documents, clippings, and photographs related to his advocacy and work for LGBT equality. This series is currently being processed. (3.5 cubic feet)

Correspondence and other records of the Gay Community Center of DC, along with a large amount of newsletters about the activities of the Center. Includes newsletters collected from various sources related to the activities of many community organizations. Fliers, advertisements, brochures and pamphlets related to these groups are also held with the newsletters. Large clipping projects had been conducted from various sources, primarily the Washington Blade but also the Washington Post, to thematically and chronologically present community history; some of these clippings are organized and bound, others are loose. Some material related to non-DC groups and activities are also present and were most likely sent to people at the Center from contacts outside the city. Advertisements, fliers, and event information is widely available throughout the records as well as a few loose photographs. (2 cubic ft, plus oversize Resolutions)

Includes collected newsletters, fliers and clippings related to gay community organizations in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. This is an open series and will be added to as accruals are made. (4 cubic feet)

An open series and will be added to as accruals are made. (1 cubic foot) (see also, P 4092)

Includes concert programs and VHS tapes of performances, 1983-1991. The written material is unrestricted; researchers may access the tapes upon consultation with DC History Center staff.

Comprises photographs, clippings, promotional materials, buttons, and other documentation related to the AIDS Memorial Quilts.

Tracks DC Scrapbook (1111 First SE, 1984-1999), created by David Strickland.

Comprises correspondence and records relating to an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Complaint raised by this GLOBE, or the Gay Lesbian or Bisexual Employees, group. Prominent participants in this effort included William Isasi, Barbara Brenkworth, and Jeffrey Dutton. (.5 linear foot)

Comprises records of GLAA and its predecessor, Gay Activists Alliance to Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (7.5 cubic feet)

Comprises photographs of DC Gay Liberation Front members at various events in the Washington, DC area and in New York City; facts sheets and newsletters about GLF activities; and materials about an April 1993 GLF reunion. Materials focus on early gay liberation activities in DC from both a social and political perspective. (.25 cubic ft. 1 container; 2 banners; 1 beret; 1 oversized poster)

The files and records of the treasurer and bookkeeper of the Gay Community Center/DC, from the operations held at its third and final home on 1228 17th Street, NW, during the years 1988-1990.

Comprises pins, buttons, wooden nickels and a badge. Objects 2008.075.001-112

This is an “artificial” collection of materials aggregated by RHP from various individual donors, each of which may have provided various folders of materials stored here, or transferred to other collections (such as periodicals or ephemera). This series includes materials donated by or concerning:

Warren Blumenfeld (2 folders)
Daniel Bruner (1 Folder)
Bob Dardano (2 folders)
Daniel Emberley (4 folders)
Gideon Ferebee (2 folders)
Eva Freund (3 folders)
R. Skip Keith (2 folders)
Todd Lovett and Mark Wilcox (4 folders)
Jim Marks (6 folders)
Keith Russell (4 folders)
Boden Sandstrom and Casse Culver (3 folders and 1 Oversized folder)
Richard Schaefers (1 folder)
Nancy Tucker (8 folders)
Kurt Vorndran (4 folders)

Papers of the National Association of Black and White Men Together Convention 1988. Includes conference proceedings, financial records, correspondence, memorabilia, publications, and ephemera, as well as a fan from BWMT conference from Philadelphia, PA. (.25 cubic feet)

These photographs were taken by Pat Gertschen, popularly known as “Pat O’Brien” as a community photographer at drag and leather events, most notably the Academy of Washington, from 1976 until his death in 1995. These images were developed and presented in albums for reproduction and distribution to members of the Academy who were present at the events. (2 cubic ft.)

SMYAL records include executive board documents, annual reports, correspondence, events files, meeting minutes, development and fundraising materials, newspaper clippings concerning community projects and reports, publications, and statistics related to LGBTQ youth, organizational histories and the papers of Presidents Chuck Goldfarb, Jill Strachan, and Christopher Lane. (11.5 cubic ft.)

One in Ten organizational materials, including bylaws, incorporation, mission statement; board materials; ephemera; film festival brochures; and lanyards from the Reel Affirmations Film Festival.

Interview transcripts, documents, clippings, and chronologies concerning GLF-DC and gay life in D.C. in the early 1970s.
Brian Miller conducted the interviews, transcribed them, collected the documents and organized the collection from the 1990s till the 2020s.

Papers and documents created by ENLACE : Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Latino Lesbian and Gay Coalition, between 1987 and 1994. Includes newsletters, correspondence, publicity, and research materials. (1 cubic ft., plus oversized materials)

These materials have been received but not processed. Research access may be requested and will be provided where possible.
SERIES XX: Chuck Goldfarb: (2 record boxes)
SERIES XXX: Catherine Tuerk PFLAG-DC Collection: 2022.013
SERIES XXXI: Alan Sharpe Collection: 2018.013
SERIES XXXII: Wayson Jones Collection: 2018.013
SERIES XXXV: Richard L. Haight BWMT/DC Discrimination Response System: 2022.013
SERIES (unassigned): 2018.041 banner
SERIES (unassigned): Jim Graham materials: 2020.014 (1 record box)
SERIES (unassigned): AGLA 2018.034 (1 record boxes)
SERIES (unassigned) CSAR 2018.034 (1 record box)