The City of Vancouver Archives was recently awarded $71,000 to digitize the recently donated collection by the B.C. Gay and Lesbian Archives.
The funding, which came from the National Heritage Digitization Strategy, will make it possible for staff to digitize the collection and make it available online.
鈥淭hanks to the funding support of the National Heritage Digitization Strategy, the collection鈥檚 graphic and audiovisual works will be available online by next summer, ready to be discovered and used by researchers around the world,鈥� Heather Gordon, city archivist, said in a press release.
鈥淥ur hope is that the increased visibility of the materials will enable LGBTQ2+ community members of all ages to see themselves and their predecessors reflected in Vancouver鈥檚 documentary heritage, and will encourage and facilitate the study of queer history both locally and internationally, by academics, casual researchers, and everyone in between.鈥�
The BC Gay and Lesbian Archives, a collection established and maintained since 1976 by , an active, long-time member of Vancouver鈥檚 LGBTQ2+ community, was donated to the City of Vanocuver archives back in May, it includes about 7,400 photographs, 2,000 posters and 150 audiovisual recordings.
For more than 40 years, Dutton acquired and described textual records, photographs, periodicals, ephemera and audio-visual material of significant to the LGBTQ2+ community in Vancouver and throughout the province. He had the records, which total more than 750,000 items, stored in his West End apartment until making the donation earlier this year.
The collection reflects a broad range of LGBTQ2+ experiences and activities in the Vancouver area from the 1960s through to the present 鈥� including Aboriginal drag performers and HIV/AIDS activists, LGBTQ2+ community seniors, transgender activists, youth groups, and LGBTQ2+ religious groups. It documents the evolution of a traditionally marginalized community that has been historically underrepresented in archival holdings.
@JessicaEKerr
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