October is queer history month in Canada. We want to highlight some local and digital queer history resources that are public and accessible. Curious historians take note!
The new Calgary Gay History Project Collection at the University of Calgary launched during Pride and are already being used by researchers. We’re planning a launch party on October 22 at 5 PM, details TBA.
Our colleagues at the Edmonton Queer History Project launched an online digitized queer Alberta magazine collection. Of particular interest to Calgarians are Outlooks, Modern Pink, and A.G.L.P. They’ve kindly pledged to add more Calgary publications in the near future.
The Central Library has hard copies of queer publications Outlook, Clue! and QC Magazine in their fourth-floor Local History collection (as well as circulating copies of Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary).
Gay Calgary and Edmonton magazine has their back catalogue digitized and online (2003-2019).
Many significant queer archives are digitizing some of their holdings and creating online exhibits—notably the ArQuives in Toronto and the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria.
When you are travelling, seek out the queer histories of the places you are visiting. We just went to Spokane, Washington, last week and discovered Spokane Pride’s queer history project online—fascinating!
Finally, when you have discovered something interesting, share it! You can use the social media tags @2SQHMCan and #2SQHMCan to link up with a national conversation about queer history.
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