As a visual artist whose work centers on the lack of lesbian representation in the art world, I am especially drawn to the Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) and how it can inform my practice. Since my first visit there 10 years ago, I’ve encountered the organization’s history and holdings in colleagues’ films such as Megan Rossman’s The Archivettes and art shows like Shame is the First Betrayer, by Phoenix Lindsey-Hall. What began as a grassroots effort to ensure lesbian lives were documented has become one of the world’s most important community-run archives. Open to the public in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the space invites anyone to explore the artifacts, images and voices that continue to shape lesbian history.
View of the second-floor library
Recently, I had the privilege of exploring both floors of LHA alone. I reflected on the many who’ve passed through, touched the same artifacts and felt a deep sense of home and gratitude for those within the lesbian community who built and continue to maintain the solely volunteer-run space. This experience inspired me to take more intimate images that highlight the details of the archive, looking for the personal moments and feeling of quiet connection that makes LHA so special.
From left: Judith Schwarz, Deborah Edel, Arisa Reed and Joan Nestle, 1979. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
LHA was founded in 1975 by Sahli Cavallaro, Deborah Edel, Joan Nestle, Pamela Oline and Julia Stanley, who had met two years earlier at the inaugural Gay Academic Union conference in NYC. According to one of their early newsletters, their mission was “a commitment to rediscovering our past, controlling our present, and speaking to our future.” LHA aimed to preserve all expressions of lesbian identity: written, spoken, visual and recorded.
The founders of the archives introduce themselves in the newsletter below and offer a formal statement of structure and purpose—a credo that has appeared in nearly every subsequent issue. That same year LHA found its first home, on the Upper West Side in Joan Nestle’s 92nd Street apartment, where wine, cheese and bread were served and a jumping dog joined, too!
Newsletter from June 1975
By March 1976, LHA had over 150 books of past and contemporary nonfiction writings, a large collection of lesbian paperbacks from the 1950s and ’60s, and newsletters and newspapers representing lesbian communities across the world. The archives were described as both a library and a “family album,” introducing a space to preserve the lives and experiences of lesbians across generations, and included multimedia materials such as photos, oral herstories, diaries and posters.
Womanbooks had two locations during the 1970s on the Upper West Side. Images like this represent lost spaces for and by lesbians. LHA’s archive is portrait heavy, but it is important to remember that photographs like this recall places that existed as safe spots for lesbians to gather and not only peruse books but plan political events.
Womanbooks, A Bookstore for Women, 1979. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
Deborah Edel, 1979. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
Meetings at Joan Nestle’s apartment were an important part of building community and sustaining the archive. The street address remained private until the 1990s, with access via the 718-768-DYKE phone line.
For years, LHA shared information through letters, postcards, phone calls, events and slideshows. The original Rolodex pictured below, often listing only addresses, is a tangible link to LHA’s early days. Artifacts like this make the one-of-a-kind archive even more remarkable, allowing visitors to connect physically with its history and trove of information. LHA now faces challenges in digitizing outdated formats, balancing cost and mission.
Original Rolodex
An intern archiving images of Joan Nestle, one of the Lesbian Herstory Archives founders
LHA has served not only as an archive but as a place to host diverse programming such as the meeting, discussion and video screening about topless rights equality in the City shown in the flyer below, which included a “screening of parts of a video ‘Top Free Equality Performance Picnic, June, 23, 1990’ with courtroom testimony by Mary Lou Schloss.”
Realizing in the mid-1980s that LHA needed a larger space, the volunteers and coordinators bought a townhome in Park Slope in 1992 and reopened in 1993.
Archive coordinators at the opening of the new location in Park Slope, Brooklyn, 1993. Photo: Saskia Scheffer
At-home flyer, 1990. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
Today that building’s foyer holds ephemera and LHA merch such as a baseball cap and a tote bag. In the photo below, lesbian activist Mabel Hampton (1902–1989) is pictured twice at the bottom left, by the sign-in book. Hampton was integral to LHA.
Just past the foyer, dark wooden stairs lead up to the second floor where the archives exist. Draped along the staircase and to the left was an exhibition called Dyke Prom Royalty. This 2023 exhibition pays homage to many lesbians who were never able to experience prom, or if they were, I wonder if it was authentic for them.
The show remains to the left of the staircase and displays personal items that lesbians or their families have donated, such as Joan Nestle’s black silk slip and the “Dyke Tactics” leather jacket inspired by lesbian artist Barbara Hammer’s 1974 short film Dyketactics. Handmade jackets and military uniforms worn by lesbians are also on view.
Clothing on view from the Dyke Prom Royalty exhibition
“Dyke Tactics” leather jacket on view from the Dyke Prom Royalty exhibition
Some items in the archives were found in gutters or the trash, discarded by those who found out that their family member was a lesbian or was contributing to funding of LHA. It was also important to LHA to include all gender representations within the archive, and to be inclusive; they knew that there is a complex gender history within the lesbian community.
Various periodicals from the 21st century
Found images of various women loving women donated to the archives
A specific archive I became acquainted with was that of Bettye Lane’s, an American photojournalist whose work spanned the civil rights movement, feminist movement and countless political events within the LGBTQ+ community. As a photographer, I found it both typical and disappointing to realize that I had never heard of Lane until now. Prior to social media and access to affordable cameras, images like Lane’s were and remain vital to lesbians’ histories and experiences. Without LHA, these pivotal moments, such as Lane’s images, would potentially be lost.
“Stop Harassment of Lesbian Bars,” 1982, Bettye Lane
“Black and White Women Together,” 1984, Bettye Lane
“Mother Nature Is a Lesbian,” 1974, Bettye Lane
![A black-and-white photo shows people holding a banner reading “Lesbian Herstory Archives” and “Heary [Hear] the voices we have lost” at an outdoor gathering or protest. One person sits holding a sign.](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2F1aemqu6a6t65%2FHmEuD3h8Eq8X1Z1ocBsUh%2Feb70950007af9ae86a7a896c6394aaaf%2FLesbian-Herstory-Archive-Betty-Lane-7.jpg%3Fh%3D%26w%3D1200%26fit%3Dfill%26f%3Dtop%26q%3D75%26fm%3Dwebp&w=3840&q=75)
“In Memory of the Voices We Have Lost”, 1983, Bettye Lane
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s (and still right up to today), the Lesbian Herstory Archives published newsletters that offered a window into the lives, struggles and achievements of lesbian communities. Each issue featured a rich mix of personal stories, historical reflections, tributes to activists and updates on the collection. Topics ranged from bar raids and lesbian pulp fiction to Holocaust history and African American lesbian life.
Highlights included exhibits like Keepin’ On, the first traveling exhibit; Queer Covers, focused on mid-century lesbian literature; and tributes to figures such as Audre Lorde and Alma Routsong. Newsletters also documented major milestones like the move to the Park Slope building, paying off the mortgage, launching their first website and celebrating their 25th anniversary.
Newsletter #13, June 1992. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
Spring 1976 announcement for a wine and cheese party. Courtesy, Lesbian Herstory Archives
LHA continues to bring the community together through a wide range of events and programs that celebrate lesbian history, creativity and connection. LHA’s traveling exhibitions feature original or reproduced materials from the Archives, the only items allowed to temporarily leave the space and are available for display in galleries, museums, schools, and community centers. Little Rainbows Storytime welcomes children under 7, along with their families and caregivers, to enjoy inclusive stories that celebrate difference and diversity in a warm, affirming setting.
Facade of Lesbian Herstory Archives
LHA regularly hosts on-site programs inspired by their collections, from screenings and performances to community discussions. Past favorites have included a Bev Ditsie film showing and discussion (2019), an Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich marathon reading (2012) and an archives tour centered on Black lesbians in the 1970s (2010). Their twice-yearly Books for Change sales are held during Brooklyn Pride and at year’s end, inviting visitors to browse and take home duplicate titles from the shelves by donation. Lez Create, their creative collective of writers, artists and zinesters, gathers regularly to make new work inspired by the Archives, blending art, politics and intergenerational exchange.
You can keep up with LHA’s latest programming and events on Instagram, where they share glimpses into the collection and stories from visitors, artists and researchers from around the world.
Jeanette Spicer has a multidisciplinary practice based in photography. As a woman and a lesbian, her work is about the experience of occupying an overly sexualized, objectified and simultaneously underrepresented, invisible personhood. Her last piece for NYC Tourism was a feature on the NYC Dyke March.
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