OUT IN THE ARCHIVES:

An Exploration of LGBTQ+ History at Union College

This exhibition seeks to highlight the stories and experiences of LGBTQ+ people at Union College, using the archival material available at Special Collections and Archives. Featuring materials identified in the 2023 Ruth Anne Evans Research Fellowship, the goal is to uncover and bring to light queer history at Union that has either been buried or that has yet to be recognized as queer.

This website offers glimpses into the wide variety of experiences that queer people have had at Union, from separatist to assimilationist, from closeted to openly out, from stories of triumph to stories of struggle. This exhibition does not masquerade as an exhaustive or definitive composite of LGBTQ+ history at Union across the centuries. Rather, it is a singular look at some of the individuals, both students and faculty, whose work increased queer solidarity, activism, or visibility on campus. The Special Collections and Archives Department is excited to make the existing information accessible to the campus community with this exhibition, and we look forward to expanding the scope of our work.

As you look through the eclectic materials that have been gathered here, which have been pulled from dozens of disparate collections spanning several decades, I encourage you to take note of the fact that no two subjects contained within this research expressed or experienced queerness in the same way. I also encourage you to put yourself back in the time and place of our subjects.

Notes on Navigating this Site:

Each image contained in this site features a caption that is either directly underneath or directly to the left of the image, describing the image visually, with transcriptions when the image includes any text. To view the corresponding metadata (title, date, content description, and source), and to enlarge the image or zoom in on any particular fragment of interest, you can click on the image, which will take you to a new page.
The "search" bar located at the top of each page allows you to search for only images via keyword. Results from this method of searching will take you to the image page, not to where the image appears in the exhibition.

Thank you so much for visiting. For more information about any of the materials displayed in this exhibition, or to share any of your own materials or stories, visit union.edu/special-collections.

Special thanks to College Librarian Frances Maloy, Sarah Schmidt, Joseph Lueck, Matthew Golebiewski, Becky Fried, Jenn Byrd, Ryan Cudworth, and Professor Jennifer Mitchell for their help in making this website possible.

Sincerely,

Gabriella Baratier

Class of 2025

Student Curator and Inaugural Ruth Anne Evans Research Fellow