Making Invisible Histories Visible

FAIN: PW-50779-11

UCLA; Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA 90024-4201)
Kathleen McHugh (Project Director: July 2010 to October 2014)

The arrangement, description, and digitization of 80 manuscript collections and related audio visual recordings documenting lesbian and feminist activism and writing since the 1930s.

The UCLA Center for the Study of Women in collaboration with the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives and the UCLA Library seeks NEH support for a three-year project to arrange, describe, digitize, and make physically and electronically accessible two major clusters of Mazer Archive collections related to West Coast lesbian/feminist activism and writing since the 1930s. The project also involves reformatting 700 hours of audio and video associated with these collections. These materials will be permanently held by and housed in the UCLA Library, with broad public access guaranteed on site through UCLA Special Collections and online through the California Digital Library. CSW has a successful track record, having processed and digitized five of the Mazer's collections in a two-year project titled "Access Mazer: Organizing and Digitizing the Lesbian Feminist Archive in Los Angeles." This project also produced a permanent partnership arrangement between the Mazer and the UCLA Library.

Media Coverage

National Endowment for the Humanities gives $2 million in grants to Southern California (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Mike Boehm
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Date: 5/2/2011
Abstract: UCLA received a $300,000 grant for "Making Invisible Histories Visible," an effort to sift through and digitize 80 manuscript collections and audio-visual material that documents lesbian and feminist activism and writing since the 1930s.
URL: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/02/entertainment/la-et-0430-neh-grants-20110502

Grant to widen access to archive dedicated to preserving lesbian, feminist history (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Cynthia Lee
Publication: UCLA Today
Date: 7/12/2011
Abstract: The Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library were awarded a $300,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant for "Making Invisible Histories Visible: Preserving the Legacy of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Writing in Los Angeles," a three-year project to arrange, describe, digitize, and make physically and electronically accessible two major clusters of Mazer collections related to West Coast lesbian/feminist activism and writing since the 1930s. This project, which continues CSW’s partnership with the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives and the UCLA Library, grew out of CSW’s two-year "Access Mazer: Organizing and Digitizing the Lesbian Feminist Archive in Los Angeles" project, which was supported in part by the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships.
URL: http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/fbb-post.aspx?id=4266

Queer Archival Futures: Case Study Los Angeles (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Ann Cvetkovich
Publication: Hemispheric Institute E-Misérica
Date: 6/1/2012
Abstract: The encounter between actually existing archives and archive theory suggests the value of the case history for assessing contemporary queer archives because we cannot know in advance whether institutionalization represents a domestication of the aleatory queerness that is present in any archive. As an example, I will report briefly on some recent site visits to Los Angeles, where there are two notable new collaborations between existing community-based archives and universities: the June Mazer Lesbian Archive with UCLA and the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives with the University of Southern California (USC). - See more at: http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-91/cvetkovich#sthash.Q3dFQijD.dpuf
URL: http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-91/cvetkovich

Associated Products

Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection (Article)
Title: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection
Author: Stacy Wood
Abstract: Overview and examples of materials in the Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection of the MAzer Archive.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/article-pdfs/Oct2012_SWood.pdf
Primary URL Description: Website of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Margaret A. Porter Collection (Article)
Title: Margaret A. Porter Collection
Author: Gloria Gonzalez
Abstract: Overview and examples from the Margaret A. Porter Collection in the Mazer Archive.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/article-pdfs/NOV2012_Gonzalez.pdf
Primary URL Description: Website of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Processing Audio-Visual Collections (Article)
Title: Processing Audio-Visual Collections
Author: Angel Diaz
Abstract: Overview and examples of audio-visual materials in the MAzer Archive.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/dec-2012-issue/Dec2012_Diaz.pdf
Primary URL Description: Website of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Lesbian Schoolworker Records (Article)
Title: Lesbian Schoolworker Records
Author: Kimberlee Granholm
Abstract: Overview and examples of Lesbian Schoolworker Records in the Mazer Archive.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/Jan2013_KGranholm.pdf
Primary URL Description: Website of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Ester Bentley Collection (Article)
Title: Ester Bentley Collection
Author: Stacy Wood
Abstract: Overview and examples from the Ester Bentley Collection in the Mazer Archive.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/Feb2013_Mazer.pdf
Primary URL Description: Website of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection
Author: Stacy Wood
Abstract: Overview and examples from the Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection
Date: 12/19/2012
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2012/12/from-june-l-mazer-lesbian-archives-ruth.html
Primary URL Description: Blog of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Blog Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Collection
Website: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/

Interview with Ann Giagni (Article)
Title: Interview with Ann Giagni
Author: Ben Sher
Abstract: Biography of Ann Giagni, President of the Board of Mazer Lesbian Archives, including an overview of the Archives' history and her involvement with lesbian feminist activism.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/June2013_BSher.pdf
Primary URL Description: CSW Update
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Records of Broomstick Magazine (Article)
Title: Records of Broomstick Magazine
Author: Courtney Dean
Abstract: An overview of the materials in the "Records of Broomstick Magazine," including a short history of the magazine.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/May2013_NEH.pdf
Primary URL Description: Article in CSW Update (newsletter)
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Grier Periodical Collection and Diana Press Records (Article)
Title: Grier Periodical Collection and Diana Press Records
Author: Courtney Dean
Abstract: A short history of both publications units along with examples of the contents of the collections.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/Mar2013_NEH.pdf
Primary URL Description: CSW Update (newsletter)
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: WAVAW (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: WAVAW
Author: Ben Sher
Abstract: A biography of the organization, called Women Against Violence Against Women, which protested the use of violence against women in movies, television, and music.
Date: 06/28/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/06/from-june-mazer-lesbian-archives-wavaw.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: Center for the Study of Women
Website: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com

Interview with Ann Giagni of the June Mazer Lesbian Archives (Blog Post)
Title: Interview with Ann Giagni of the June Mazer Lesbian Archives
Author: Ben Sher
Abstract: Profile of Ann Giagni, President of the Board of the June Maser Lesbian Archives.
Date: 06/21/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/06/interview-with-ann-giagni-of-june-mazer.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Broomstick Magazine (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Broomstick Magazine
Author: Courtney Dean
Abstract: Summary of the activities of Broomstick, which was an independent, self-published radical feminist magazine dedicated to supporting and promoting women and lesbian activism and art for an audience of women over forty.
Date: 05/13/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/05/records-of-broomstick-magazine.html
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Grier Periodical Collection and Diana Press Records (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Grier Periodical Collection and Diana Press Records
Author: Courtney Dean
Abstract: The Barbara Grier Periodical Collection represents a rich assemblage of feminist and lesbian themed newspapers, magazines, journals, and small press publications amassed by Grier over the years. Spanning from 1969 to 1992, the bulk of the material is from the 1980s and features periodicals from large United States metropolitan areas as well as smaller towns. Diana Press was a lesbian-feminist printing and publishing house which was started by Coletta Reid and Casey Czarnik in Baltimore, MD, in 1972, then relocated to Oakland, CA, in 1977. Most notably, Diana Press published titles by such authors as Rita Mae Brown and Judy Grahn and reprinted Jeannette Foster’s pioneering Sex Variant Women in Literature.
Date: 03/19/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/03/grier-periodical-collection-and-diana.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Lesbian Schoolworker Records (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Lesbian Schoolworker Records
Author: Kimberlee Granholm
Abstract: An overview of the Lesbian Schoolworkers Records, which contains information regarding organizational history, principles of unity and structure, press releases, newsletters, flyers, paste-ups, and photographs. With a commitment to "fighting racism, sexism, class, and oppression within our own movement and this society," the group organized in 1977 to defeat Propositions 6 and 7. While this organization was among the many to rally against the bill, it also actively campaigned against anti-lesbian and pro-death penalty laws and sought to identify the relationship between Third World oppression and the oppression of all lesbians.
Date: 02/19/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/02/from-june-l-mazer-lesbian-archives.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

Angela Brinskele (Article)
Title: Angela Brinskele
Author: Ben Sher
Abstract: Renowned photographer documents the lesbian feminist community in Los Angeles. In this article, she reminisces about lesbian life in West Hollywood from 1991 to 2013.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2012-2013/issue-pdfs-rev/Mazer2013_Brinskele.pdf
Primary URL Description: CSW Update (newsletter)
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Diane F. Germaine Papers (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: Diane F. Germaine Papers
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: By collecting and preserving the documentation and materials that are central to women’s lives, the June Mazer Lesbian Archives preserves details of American culture that have long been invisible in archival histories.  The Diane F. Germain papers exemplify this fact. Germain is a French-American lesbian-feminist psychiatric social worker. She conducts the Lesbian History Project and created and conducted a strength group for Women Survivors of Incest and/or childhood molestation for five years. She was one of the founding members of Dykes on Hikes, The Lesbian Referral Services, Beautiful Lesbian Thespians and California Women's Art Collective. She was an early principal member of the San Diego Lesbian Organization and a collective member of both Las Hermanas and Califia, a separatist lesbian community.
Date: 07/29/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: CSW Blog
Website: uclacsw.blogspot.com

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Daughters of Bilitis Records (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Daughters of Bilitis Records
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: he June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives at UCLA are exciting because they allow researchers to investigate important historical institutions and events in the lesbian community from multiple angles. The Daughters of Bilitis records collection gives the researcher a unique opportunity to understand how one of the earliest LGBTQ organizations developed during a time of profound oppression and invisibility for LGBTQ people.
Date: 08/14/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/08/from-june-mazer-lesbian-archives.html
Primary URL Description: CSW Blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection (Blog Post)
Title: Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: One of the joys of working in an archive, for archivists and researchers, is coming across tantalizing mysteries. A huge range of women have donated to The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, ranging from public figures like Margarethe Cammermeyer to lesser-known, but no less historically important, women. Occasionally, a very intriguing collection will come with a minimum of identifying information about the woman to whom it belonged. I interviewed Stacy E. Wood, a Graduate Student Researcher working on processing the Mazer collections for UCLA, about one such collection: The Martha Foster Collection. While looking through the Mazer holdings at UCLA, Wood came across Foster’s papers, which included a small amount of poetry and many striking photographs, taken in her backyard in Echo Park in the early 1930s. “They’re really gorgeous,” says Wood. “They almost look like test costume shots. There are hundreds of them. And I couldn’t find any information about her. Even Angela Brinskele (photographer and board member of the Mazer Archive) couldn’t find a death certificate or birth dates.”
Date: 08/29/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/08/mysteries-of-june-l-mazer-archive.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: cswblogspot.com

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Angela Brinskele (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Angela Brinskele
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: One of the treasures of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives at UCLA is a collection of approximately 800 photos by Angela Brinskele, Director of Communications at the Archives, which chronicle Los Angeles’ lesbian community from 1991-2013 (with the majority covering the last 10 years). Brinskele first began taking photographs as a teenager in Orange County in the late 1970s. Los Angeles is perennially a smorgasbord of images waiting to be captured, and Brinskele and her friends went to places like Chasen’s Restaurant, The Beverly Hilton Hotel, and the stage door of The Merv Griffin Show to photograph stars including Bette Davis, James Stewart, Bob Hope, Audrey Hepburn, Johnny Carson, and Gene Kelly.
Date: 09/16/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html
Primary URL Description: CSW Blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: uclacsw.blogspot.com

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Processing A/V (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Processing A/V
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: The audiovisual holdings of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives make up a significant part of its contents. Graduate Student Researchers Kimberlee Granholm and Daniel Williford, who have been processing the A/V holdings, estimate that the collection contains 230 VHS recordings that are unavailable anywhere else, 60 to 70 VHS movies and other easily accessed materials, and 50 items in DVD, Matic, Beta, 16mm, 8mm, and Super 8 formats. Granholm and Williford have reviewed and processed between 150 and 200 items, and it has proven quite an exciting adventure. I met with the two of them to discuss what they have found the holdings and why these findings are so important to scholars, UCLA, the LGBT community, and anyone interested in the complete history of twentieth and twenty-first centuries..
Date: 10/22/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/10/from-june-l-mazer-lesbian-archive.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Blog Title: CSW blog
Website: uclacsw.blogspot.com

Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection (Article)
Title: Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: One of the joys of working in an archive, for archivists and researchers, is coming upon a tantalizing mystery. Many, many women have donated to materials to the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, ranging from public figures like Margarethe Cammermeyer to lesser-known, but no less historically important, women. Occasionally, a very intriguing collection will come with a minimum of identifying information about the woman to whom it belonged. I recently interviewed Stacy E. Wood, a graduate student researcher working on processing the Mazer collections for the “Making Invisible Histories Visible” project. about one such collection: the Martha Foster Collection.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2013-2014/fall-2013
Primary URL Description: CSW Newsletter
Secondary URL: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9zm555x4
Secondary URL Description: California Digital Library eScholarship Repository
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: WAVAW (Blog Post)
Title: From the June Mazer Lesbian Archives: WAVAW
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), a feminist activist organization, was founded in 1976 in Los Angeles by anti-pornography activist Marcia Womongold. The Los Angeles chapter of WAVAW was formed out of an ad hoc coalition of feminist groups who joined forces to protest a film called Snuff and the advertising campaign for the Rolling Stones album, Black and Blue.
Date: 06/28/2013
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2013/06/from-june-mazer-lesbian-archives-wavaw.html
Primary URL Description: CSW blog
Website: CSW website

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: The Dyke Olympics and Other Lesbian Pastimes (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: The Dyke Olympics and Other Lesbian Pastimes
Author: Jonathan Cohn
Abstract: The audiovisual materials in the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives include an assortment of home movies and recordings of speeches, conferences, dances, parades, concerts, fundraisers, socials, retreats, news stories, comedy routines, television episodes, movies, and documentaries. In addition, there are also thousands of prints, slides, and art depicting everything from the making of documentaries to events like gay pride parades, meetings, classes, camps, protests, parties, retreats, and the Dyke Olympics. As a graduate student researcher on the project, I cataloged and began the process of digitizing these materials.
Date: 06/09/2014
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2014/06/from-june-l-mazer-lesbian-archives-dyke.html
Primary URL Description: CSW Blog
Website: CSW Website

From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Collective Intimacies (Blog Post)
Title: From the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Collective Intimacies
Author: Stacy Wood
Abstract: Over the past three years I have been fortunate enough to process many individual collections from the Mazer Archives, each taking on its unique contours, representing both an historical moment as well as generously contributing to the collective intimacies of the lesbian archival record. Over time, one begins to recognize that almost every collection contains evidence of community involvement and organizational activities, professional commitments as well as deeply personal materials, evidence of the impossibility of separating or compartmentalizing lesbian lives.
Date: 06/02/2014
Primary URL: http://uclacsw.blogspot.com/2014/06/from-june-l-mazer-lesbian-archives_2.html
Primary URL Description: CSW Blog
Website: CSW Website

Making Invisible Histories Visible: A Resource Guide to the Collections (Book)
Title: Making Invisible Histories Visible: A Resource Guide to the Collections
Author: June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives
Editor: Kathleen A. McHugh
Editor: Ben Raphael Sher
Editor: Brenda Johnson-Grau
Abstract: A resource guide to the collections of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, the volume contains short essays by some of the participants in the project and provides information on all the collections that were processed. 
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/MakingInvisibleHistoriesVisibleJune22.pdf
Primary URL Description: PDF
Secondary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/book
Secondary URL Description: Page on CSW website that describes the book and has a link to the PDF.
Access Model: open access
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-0-615-9908
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection (Article)
Title: Mysteries of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives: Martha Foster Collection
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: Overview of the Martha Foster Collection.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2013-2014/article-pdfs/Mysteries%20of%20the%20June%20L.%20Mazer%20Lesbian%20Archives.pdf
Primary URL Description: CSW website
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Making Invisible Histories Visible: Processing A/V Collections (Article)
Title: Making Invisible Histories Visible: Processing A/V Collections
Author: Ben Raphael Sher
Abstract: Overview of audiovisual processing
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.csw.ucla.edu/publications/newsletters/2013-2014/winter-2014/article-pdfs/Winter2014_Mazer.pdf
Primary URL Description: CSW website
Periodical Title: CSW Update
Publisher: UCLA Center for the Study of Women

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