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Archives are no static, dusty relic. Along with their archivists they constantly evolve, spinning new stories from the lives, loves and losses they commemorate, layering greater understanding of persecuted communities that were, for so long, aggressively unseen.
That was the politically charged origin of New York’s ever-growing Lesbian Herstory Archive (LHA). The world’s largest repository of its kind, it was founded in 1974 by four women from different backgrounds, including Joan Nestle and former partner Deborah Edel. Calling on the lesbian community to contribute all manner of personal records, they fought back against entrenched homophobia.