The Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York, Gay Rights Historical T-Shirt Collection.
The Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York received its initial donation in fall of 2009. It has grown over the past years from a number of individual and community donations. Currently, the collection includes over 150 boxes of materials that include photographs, local organization records, multimedia materials, pamphlets, posters, clippings, awards, signs, banners, plaques, published materials, as well as an array of ephemera items.
The Gay Rights Historical T-Shirt Collection exemplifies the community collaboration involved in this growing collection. Textile material holdings range from the early 1980s and span the last thirty-six years of advocacy in the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, queer, and transgender community. Each items was donated by a member of the community, most as a single contribution.
Currently, the Gay Rights Historical T-Shirt Collection consists of around 139 unique t-shirts that were created for pride parades and gay rights activism; community organizations; national and local rallies; AIDs activism; local LGBTQ bars and support organizations; and as individual creations. Some t-shirts are original creations, not mass produced for an event, but instead created by a member of the LGBTQ community for a particular march or protest.
