Washington University Libraries and St. Louis LGBT History Project Form Archival Partnership

The St. Louis LGBT History Project has announced a new archival partnership with Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). University Archives, a unit of Washington University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections, will join with the Project to preserve LGBT artifacts and offer educational programming, with a focus on highlighting the pivotal role WUSTL faculty, alumni, and students have played in LGBT life since the 1800s.

The university served as the location of St. Louis’s first LGBT “pride rally” in 1980, with many WUSTL students and faculty participating. Tennessee Williams, who later became a famed playwright and was homosexual, attended Washington University in the mid-1930s, and WUSTL faculty have conducted groundbreaking medical and sociological LGBT-related research over the years.

University Librarian Jeffrey Trzeciak says of the partnership, “The Libraries are excited to be a part of the St. Louis LGBT History Project’s collaboration with local libraries and cultural heritage institutions. As a research institution, we are happy to join this collective in order to create opportunities for the larger community to better understand the LGBT experience in St. Louis and at Washington University.”

Steven Brawley, founder of the St. Louis LGBT History Project, says, “The addition of WUSTL to our already dynamic archival and programming partnerships with the Missouri History Museum and the State Historical Society of Missouri will ensure that our community’s treasured and rare LGBT artifacts will be preserved for future generations.”

The St. Louis LGBT History Project was founded in 2007 with a mission to preserve and promote St. Louis’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history. Learn more at the Saint Louis LGBT History Project.

For more information about LGBT resources at WUSTL see the LGBT Archive Research Guide.