Highlighting Black LGBTQ Voices at the Schomburg Center

By Bridgett Pride, Reference Librarian
July 9, 2020
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Gay Liberation Front women

Marsha P. Johnson and women of the Gay Liberation Front demonstrate at City Hall, New York. Photo by Diana Davies.

Digital Collections, Image ID: 57365865

Are you interested in learning more about authors, activists, filmmakers, and performers who are Black and LGBTQ? Have you struggled with finding the right search terms, or archival documents that tell the story of these marginalized voices? The new LibGuide, Exploring Black LGBTQ Studies in the Schomburg Center's Archive can help you find answers. This LibGuide is designed to highlight collections focused on Black LGBTQ voices within the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. It is also a good starting point for conducting research in other New York Public Library collections and other archives that collect materials created by and for LGBTQ people.

Conducting Research

The first tab of the guide includes an introduction to preliminary research that can be done using online searching tools and a list of relevant subject terms. Learn how to go beyond the catalog search with digitized collections, finding aids, and web archives.

Schomburg Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division

This tab provides details on how to locate finding aids and catalog records for the Queer Studies Collection in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center. By reading through finding aids, researchers can create a research plan including which specific parts of each archival collection they want to view during a research appointment. With over 20 collections spanning almost 100 years, there is quite a bit of material to comb through.

Assotto Saint

Assotto Saint (Yves Lubin). NYC. 1987. Photo by Robert Giard. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1661025

Schomburg Archival Media

Both the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division and the Photographs and Prints Division of the Schomburg Center have additional resources outside of the manuscript collections. While a few films, and photograph collections have been identified in the guide, more suggestions may be discovered after contacting the division with your research question.

More Schomburg and NYPL Resources

The Jean Blackwell Hudson Research and Reference Division can provide access to published books written by Black LGBTQ people. Here, as well as at other NYPL research libraries, researchers can access periodicals, databases, and suplemental LibGuides that discuss LGBTQ lives.

Jewelle Gomez

Jewelle Gomez. Jersey City, NJ. 1987. Photo by Robert Giard. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1661099

Other Resources

The Schomburg Center is just one of many institutions that collects materials created by and about LGBTQ people. The guide includes a list of other LGBTQ archives and links to open access online resources for anyone looking to learn more.

>>> Go to the LibGuide