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Connect with
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Get Involved
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From
working in the archives to helping produce exhibitions on Boston's
GLBT history to helping us plan events and organize educational programs ...Find out how you can volunteer with The History Project!Email info@historyproject.org or call 617.266.7733 for more information. |
Call for Materials
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We are actively seeking materials - photographs, letters, oral histories,
publications, etc. - from Boston's lesbian community. We hope to mount
a series of exhibitions highlighting the various and often overlooked
aspects of this richly diverse community.
For more information, please contact either Libby Bouvier at libby@historyproject.org or Andrea Still Gray at andreastill@msn.com, or call 617.266.7733. |
Website Redesign
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In 2010, The History Project will embark on a complete redesign of our website to introduce new and improved ways of sharing information about Boston's GLBT history with our community.
To learn more about this process, contact project lead and THP board member Andrea Still Gray at andreastill@msn.comAlso, you can help us fund this project by making a secure online donation to The History Project.To do so, visit our online donation page at CommunityRoom.net |
The Queer East Update
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The Queer East, our groundbreaking online exhibition
celebrating the history of Boston's Asian LGBT community, enters a new phase this fall. With the addition of two new multimedia profiles--activists and
community leaders Nikhil Aziz and Imtiyaz Hussein--and a new
searchable database featuring photos, newsletters, articles and other
historical materials.In the coming year we hope to add six more profiles
and to expand the database portion.Explore The Queer East at www.queereast.org.
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Awards Event
Host Committee
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Libby Bouvier
and Andrea Devine
Orlando Del Valle
and Roland St. Jean
Amit Dixit
Patricia Gozemba
and Karen Kahn
Kevin Hepner
Neal Kane and
Charles Schoonmaker
Stewart Landers
Chris Mekal
and Gilles Quintal
Warren Seamans
Donald Yasi
Stephen Zinner M.D.
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Letter from the Chair
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Dear Friend of The History Project:
With this issue of our newsletter,
Timelines is officially online.
History Project chair Neal Kane (center) with Host Committee members Chris Mekal (left) and Kevin Hepner
at Looking Back, Facing Forward. Photo by Marilyn Humphries
Converting Timelines
to a digital format will create an appreciable savings for us by eliminating
the costs associated with production, paper, and postage, thereby enabling
THP to devote more of its limited resources to operating and staff costs,
archival efforts, and special projects.
While the economic climate remains
challenging for small organizations with big ambitions, we at The History
Project want to ensure that our supporters stay informed about the exciting
developments taking place within the organization.
In this issue of Timelines,
we highlight a number of recent activities: partnering with Historic New England to uncover the hidden history of a landmark house in
Gloucester, progress on our initiative to document Boston's transgender community, a special call for materials from the local lesbian
community, a recap of our extremely successful awards event in
June, and a profile of one of our most dedicated volunteers.
The recent repeal of Maine's equal
marriage law underscores the importance of acknowledging, participating
in, and documenting the ongoing struggle for GLBT equality. We make
history when we fight for our rights, celebrate our love, and continue
our efforts to educate the public about the legacy and accomplishments
of GLBT individuals. The hard-won victories we have achieved here in
Massachusetts continue to inspire supporters of social justice around
the country--and The History Project is the group most qualified
to preserve the record of those groundbreaking achievements.
I hope you'll take this opportunity
to learn more about our recent accomplishments and that we can count
on your continued support for our important and valuable work.
Warm regards,
Neal Kane
Chair
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HistoryMakers: The History Project's
Inaugural Awards Event
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by Sarah Jensen
U.S. Congressman Barney Frank became
the first recipient of THP's HistoryMaker Award given during the
Looking Back, Facing Forward event held on June 5 at the Boston Athenaeum in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the
Stonewall Rebellion.  Presentation and wards ceremony, with our emcee, Pat Gozemba. Photo by Marilyn Humphries
Speaking in absentia via a video created
by Dickinson Associates, Frank said he was "enormously gratified"
upon receiving the award. He recounted his experiences as a gay man
in Congress and cited the effectiveness of the political process as
well as activism in furthering LGBT awareness and equality. "I was
the beneficiary of the bravery of the people at Stonewall," he said.
History
Project co-founder and board member Libby Bouvier with Gary Buseck, Lavender Rhino recipient Robbie Samuels, and History Project operations
coordinator Andrew Elder and board member Tony Grima. Photo by Marilyn Humphries
The event also honored Boston-area
activist and community organizer Robbie Samuels with its Lavender Rhino
Award. Named after an early symbol of the Gay Liberation movement, the
annual award recognizes an emerging activist or organization for its
significant impact on the local LGBT community. Introduced by GLAD
Legal Director Gary Buseck, Samuels said, "I'm a queer history buff,
so it's quite an honor to be recognized by The History Project. I
will strive to live up to the expectations of this award."
Samuels is special events manager for
GLAD. His many other achievements include a wide range of social
change and community building activities, from working with the AIDS
Action Committee to serving on the Fenway Community Health's consumer
advocacy board to founding Socializing for Justice, a group committed
to building a strong cross-issue progressive movement. Samuels
expressed appreciation to the numerous organizations he's worked with
since his involvement with the LGBT community began in 1994. "This
award is accepted in honor of the work you do," he said.
 Richard Dickinson, Eric Lee, Mona Kumar, and History Project board member Stephen Nonack. Photo by Marilyn Humphries
"The event at the Athenaeum represented
a major step forward for the organization," notes Neal Kane, chair
of The History Project. "Recognizing the accomplishments of distinguished
figures within Boston's LGBT community is a key dimension of our mission,
and it was extremely gratifying to have both new and established supporters
participate in this memorable evening."
THP extends a special thank-you to those who helped make this event such a success.
 Sue Hyde and Jade McGleughlin with History Project board member Amit Dixit.
Photo by Marilyn Humphries
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Documenting Boston's Transgender History
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by Mesma S. Belsare
Did you know that the earliest record of a transgender rights
organization may go back to 1895? Or that in 1954, Christine Jorgensen, a pioneer figure in
transgender history, was prevented by the City of Boston from performing in a local night club? Or that 13 states and more than 100 cities and counties in the U.S. have passed laws prohibiting
discrimination based on gender identity and/or expression?
With our latest documentation initiative, The History
Project is working to bring together these valuable fragments of history--moments that reveal a legacy of transgender people's
involvement and leadership in movements for GLBT rights and social justice.
In early 2009, through the generous financial support of
John Snow, Inc. (JSI), The History Project launched the Transgender Initiative, aimed at
documenting the history of Boston's and Massachusetts' transgender community. With this
project, we will chronicle the history of trans activism and trans movements, we
will interview individuals who traverse the archetypal definitions of gender, and
we will place Boston's
transgender history within national and international historical narratives
of transgender movements, communities, and individuals.
Members of Boston's
transgender community and their supporters have taken the lead in directing and
executing this undertaking. In May of 2009, we held a community forum for this
initiative at United South End Settlements. Read the Bay Windows article about this forum. And while this project is still in its early stages, we are
gaining momentum with the support of community members, volunteers, and THP
supporters.
If you'd like to learn how to get involved with The History
Project's Transgender Initiative, email me at mesmadance@yahoo.com or call
617.266.7733.
If you'd like to make a financial contribution to support
this project, please visit our donation page at CommunityRoom.net or send a
check to
The History Project
29 Stanhope Street
Boston, MA 02116
The History Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.
This project is sponsored in part by a grant from JSI.
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Sorting Your "Stuff" & Telling Your Story
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by Patricia A. Gozemba
Many in Boston's
LGBT community from the Baby Boom era have collections of "stuff" in attics,
basements, closets, storage lockers, and even on hard drives. This "stuff" is
the memorabilia and history of an important period in the lives of all of us "improper Bostonians." We are in danger of losing much of this important
history to normal deterioration. Slides of the 1979 March on Washington or the 1975 Boston Pride March, of gatherings at the Punchbowl or late nights at Ken's at Copley Square, are slowly becoming less
usable. T-shirts are yellowing, programs are falling apart, photos are fading,
and home movies are becoming too brittle to be  projected. Recently, Marilyn
Humphries and I faced this hard reality as we worked on a video oral history of Joe Antonelli (65) about his life in the Boston
and North Shore area. Antonelli proved a great subject because he had saved many
pieces of history (slides, photos, yearbooks, cocktail napkins, T-shirts,
programs) but like most, his "stuff' was not organized, labeled, or preserved
properly. We pushed him to do this by reminding him that if he didn't, when he
died it would in all likelihood end up in a dumpster.
This is the challenge now to folks over 60--especially
lesbians in our community--whose lives are largely undocumented. THP needs your
history, and you are the skilled historian who can begin the process of
reconstructing your past by organizing your artifacts and identifying people,
dates, and places. No one knows this history as well as you.
Humphries and I are working with THP over the next year to record
video oral histories with members of our community, especially lesbians over 50
years old, who have a history of participation in LGBT life in Boston from 1940 on. If you have materials
that can help us to reconstruct your life, and LGBT life in the Boston area more
generally, we would like to work with you. The process can begin as soon as you
start organizing your "stuff"--the "stuff" that tells not only your story, but
also the story of our community. Help us preserve this history and these stories
for future generations.
If you would like to work
with THP, please contact us. If you're willing
to share your life on video and be interviewed, please get in touch
with Andrew Elder at andrew.elder@historyproject.org or call 617.266.7733.
Patricia A. Gozemba and Marilyn Humphries
along with Karen Kahn created Courting Equality (Beacon Press,
2007) www.courtingequality.com.THP co-founder Pat Gozemba with Joanne Herman and Grace Sterling Stowell at Looking Back, Facing Forward.
Photo by Marilyn Humphries
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The History Project Archives:
Collections Documenting GLBT Boston
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What a year in the Archives.
 Our interns from Simmons College's
Library and Information Sciences masters program--Alexandra, Deirdre,
and Eve--and our volunteers--Amy, Mark, Sarah, and so many others--arranged and described a number of collections, including papers from
the Boston chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (with a near-complete
run of this chapter's publication, Focus), the records (and scorecards!)
from the Beantown Bowlers, and papers from Dignity-Boston and the Religious
Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. These collections are now organized
and open to researchers. Please contact us to make an appointment to
see them.
We've also been working with individuals and community organizations
to include their records and collections as a permanent part of The
History Project's archives of GLBT history. Some recent acquisitions
include materials from the following organizations: SpeakOUT! Boston,
Project 10 East, the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth,
and Boston Gay Men's Chorus. We have also begun to work closely with
BAGLY (the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth) and with the MTPC (Massachusetts
Transgender Political Coalition) to preserve their records.
The History Project is always working to ensure the stories of Boston
and Massachusetts' GLBT communities are accessible to future generations.
To this end, we actively pursue the acquisition of new and diverse archival
materials and collections. From recent happenings to pre-Stonewall history,
the extensive archives of The History Project bring the complex history
of Boston's GLBT communities to researchers and community members and
contribute to local, national, and international dialogues on GLBT history.
Call for Materials:
We are actively seeking materials--photographs, letters, oral histories,
publications, etc.--from Boston's lesbian community. We hope to mount
a series of exhibitions highlighting the various and often overlooked
aspects of this richly diverse community.
Please contact either Libby Bouvier at libby@historyproject.org or Andrea Still Gray at andreastill@msn.com, or call 617.266.7733.
We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for recent donations of materials to The History Project Archives:
Rabbi Howard A. Berman, Donna Clifford and Dorothy Emerson, Bill Conrad, Janet Dendy, Rev. Anne Fowler, Bernie Gardella, Pat Gozemba, Amy Kennedy, Mary Kennedy, Andrew Kerivan, John Kyper, Michael LeClerc, Jim Lopata, Nancy Mansfield, Project 10 East, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, Gunner Scott, SpeakOUT!, Peter Stickel, and Grace Sterling Stowell.
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The History Project Partners
with Historic New England
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by Stephen Nonack
On Saturday, September 26,
a capacity crowd of 50 supporters and friends of THP met at Beauport,
the Sleeper-McCann House in Eastern Point, Gloucester. It was
a brilliant autumn afternoon at the house, one of nearly three dozen
properties maintained in the region by Historic New England.
Our
hosts were site manager Pilar Garro, and Ken Turino, manager of Community
Engagement and Exhibitions for HNE. The event marked a recent
revamping of the script used by docents to interpret the house to include language noting that the designer and first owner of the
house, Henry Davis Sleeper, was gay (a fact that had been covered in the History Project publication, Improper Bostonians, now for
sale in the Sleeper-McCann House gift shop).
Architectural historian Philip Hayden, who spoke at a reception on the
terrace following tours of the house, wryly noted that given the fact
that Sleeper, a "domestic bachelor," was America's first interior
decorator, acknowledgment of his sexuality could come as a shock to no
one experiencing Beauport in person.
The event also marked the first in a series of programmatic
collaborations between The History Project and Historic New England,
part of their "100 Years, 100 Communities" outreach marking HNE's
centennial.
Look for more collaborations between The History Project and Historic New England in 2010.
Improper Bostonians, The History Project's landmark study of Boston's GLBT past, is available for purchase online through Amazon.com or by sending a check payable to The History Project in the amount of $13 (includes shipping and handling) to:
The History Project
29 Stanhope Street
Boston, MA 02116
Isabella
Stewart Gardner at Eastern Point in Gloucester, with Henry Davis
Sleeper (second from left) and A. Piatt Andrew
Jr. (far right), c. 1909.
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Profile: Maureen Ryan, Volunteer
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by Alison Case
Maureen Ryan's association with The
History Project began a year ago when she started tagging along with
friend and THP staff person Andrew Elder to THP events. Before long, she
was helping him stuff envelopes and occasionally giving him a lift
in her car, Lightning, to pick up supplies. It was a logical next step,
then, when Andrew asked Maureen to put her organizational skills to
use as a more active volunteer.
Early in 2009, armed with an MS
in library and information science from Simmons College and a love of
all things Microsoft Excel, Maureen applied her talents to the smooth
execution of last June's Looking Back, Facing Forward event.
She contributed important ideas to the planning process, kept track
of ticket sales and attendee information, and helped coordinate the
activities of the other volunteers. She's currently co-chairing the
committee to plan next year's awards event, HistoryMakers.
"The History Project gives me a chance
to be involved in an organization that's not just maintaining a collection,
but archiving the history of a continually active and evolving community,"
she says. "That's a particularly exciting challenge from a librarian's
point of view." She feels the opportunities she has at THP contribute
to her professional development, but says she's mainly involved because
of the other volunteers, who appreciate her time, respect her interests,
and are fun to be around.
Maureen moved to Boston from her hometown
of Syracuse, New York, following stints working at the Syracuse University
College of Law library and at her town library and local newspaper.
Today, Maureen applies her love of organization to her job as a knowledge
management analyst at investment firm Bain Capital, LCC.
When not working or volunteering, Maureen
can be found cooking for her friends in her Jamaica Plain apartment,
enjoying Boston's culinary and cultural treasures, or cautiously steering
Lightning around the city's ubiquitous one-way streets.
Become a volunteer with The History Project! Email info@historyproject.org or call 617.266.7733 for more information.
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