This tag was created by Bec Stargel. The last update was by Mary A Armstrong.

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Queer Archives Project

1970 (c.) Marginalia in "Female Homosexuality" (1967)

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1. Interview with Peter Theodore '97
2. Interview with Stephen Parahus '84
3. Interview with Leah Wasacz '16
4. 2017 Riley Temple '71 "Aunt Esther's Children Redeemed" Frontispiece
7. 2007 The Lafayette, "New film group tackles tough topic for documentary"
8. 2018 QPOC Art Fest Flier
9. 1992 Brochure of AIDS Quilt Display Schedule
10. 1992 Press Release Concerning Baritone William Parker’s AIDS Quilt Performance
11. 1970 (c.) Marginalia in "Female Homosexuality" (1967)
12. 2002 The Lafayette, "Alix Olson brings Feminism to Farinon"
13. 1992 The Lafayette, "Filmmaker Adair speaks on living with HIV"
14. 2018 Photos of Rita Mae Brown guest lecture for WGS 340: Sexuality Studies Image 1: This is a photograph of author Rita Mae Brown lecturing in Professor Mary A. Armstrong's Spring 2018 WGS 340: Sexuality Studies class. Image 2: This is a photograph of author Rita Mae Brown talking with WGS 340 students, Professor Mary A. Armstrong and Catherine Hanlon '79 after after guest lecturing in Professor Armstrong's Spring 2018 WGS 340: Sexuality Studies class. Image 3: This photograph of Catherine Hanlon '79, Professor Mary A. Armstrong and author Rita Mae Brown was taken after Brown's guest lecture in Armstrong's WGS 340 class in Spring 2018. Image 4: This is a photo of Rita Mae Brown signing a personal copy of her novel "Six of One" (1978) for Mary A. Armstrong. They are in Armstrong's faculty office. Image 5: This is a picture of Rita Mae Brown talking with Mary A. Armstrong after signing her personal copy of her novel "Six of One" (1978). They are in Armstrong's faculty office. Image 6: This is a picture of Rita Mae Brown signing posters associated with her lecture as part of Women's & Gender Studies' Spring 2018 "Voices of Resistance" Series. Mary A. Armstrong is present, and they are in Armstrong's faculty office.
15. 2015 The Lafayette, "Being yourself"
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The Worn Out Carpet: Final Thoughts Although it is valuable to know what books were purchased by the library at what time and to understand their content, there is much more information than what can be collected through these means. For example, the simple presence of the books doesn’t tell us how often they were actually read. Circulation information from before the library changed to a digital system is inconsistent at best, and even a completely consistent record of checkouts would only tell part of the story. As Frank Hermann ‘59 points out in his interview, during this time period, people had to read books on these topics with a degree of secrecy. He explains that it would be potentially dangerous to check out such a book and that “if you did bring it out and go over to a desk and carefully read it” he would “[bring] a cover from another book that I put on it so that you couldn’t see the cover. ... But then put it back in the shelf where you got it from. You didn’t leave it on the desk … and walk away” [16:00]. This quote shows that not only is it unlikely that many queer and/or questioning students actually checked certain books out, but that they had to be secretive about reading them even while they remained in the library.

In addition, a project like this cannot truly explore how people were interacting with these books. When a student read a book framing homosexuality as a disease or as a criminal act, did they take this to be truth? Did they internalize these beliefs? Or did they offer up their own resistance? Obviously, these interactions vary from individual to individual. But there was one striking example of a book that showed resistance. On the title page of the book Female Homosexuality: A Psychodynamic Study, someone wrote the words “Try it! You’ll like it!” in red ink. Clearly, this person, whoever they were, found a way to make this book a site of defiance and pride, recorded physically in this book. However, most other forms of interactions with these books cannot be seen on their pages.

This is why it is so important to pair this physical exploration of these books and this space with oral histories like those which have already been conducted by the Queer Archives Project. Through these, we can see not only what was present, but who was interacting with it, and how. We can also begin to understand the complex and subjective experience that queer members of the Lafayette community have had with these library books throughout the school’s history. We can more fully understand the meaning of these shelves in Skillman library, and more fully appreciate what it may have meant to be one of the people wearing down that carpet.