This week, the Archives and Special Collections at Mount Royal University announced the online finding aid to the Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ collection. The work is an accomplishment because the collection is remarkably extensive.
Peter Houston, the Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, says, “This is such an important and valuable collection, documenting queer communities, identity, activism, oppression, and culture across Canada, the United States, and around the world. This will be a wonderful historical resource for Mount Royal University students and the wider community, who are welcome to come explore the collection.”
The finding aid was constructed in the largest part by honours student and emerging queer historian Sydney Morrissette. Sydney is a student and friend of the collection donor, Dr. David Aveline, who is advising Morrissette in the Sociology Honours program at MRU. At Aveline’s request, Morrissette continues to document queer history and acquire further accruals to the Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ collection.
Sydney posted on Instagram: “Exciting news!!! The finding aid for the Aveline-Vaźquez LGTBQ+ Collection is now live! Go poke around and check out some of over 50 years of queer history I have had the privilege of documenting.
Sydney added, “I am going to toot my own horn just a little bit; I am incredibly proud of myself for creating this database (with the help and patience of the rest of the team at MRU Archives and Special Collections). Also, I want to give a shoutout to MRU Library for giving me this job where I have been able to embrace my passion for history and take my life in a new direction I did not think was possible.”
One unique part of the collection is 107 matchbooks and their historic slogans of gay liberation.
The MRU Archives are open to the public Monday through Thursday, 10-4. However, check the calendar on the archives site before you visit; the reading room isn’t available when classes are in the archives. We can’t wait to dive in!
{KA}
Calgary Gay History 