Queer + Trans Histories at Swarthmore

David Obermayer • College Archivist & Records Manager

Simon Elichko (they/he) • Social Sciences & Data Librarian

Restrooms

Closest all-gender bathroom is on the 2nd floor. There's also one on the 1st floor.

Women's & men's rooms are on this floor.

Agenda

Discussing queer & trans history + your questions
What is Special Collections?
Swarthmore queer and trans histories through collections
Hands-on work with archival materials (+ break)
Classification, metadata, and why they matter
Queer & trans books
Reading discussion

We've Always Been Here: LGBTQ+ History at Swarthmore in the 21st Century

Curated by Brandon S. '27

LGB and/or T History
Digital Transgender Archive

Hugh Ryan

(Nov 2025)

College

College Archives

https://www.swarthmore.edu/college-archives/what-we-collect

College Archives

https://www.swarthmore.edu/college-archives/get-started-archives-research

https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/

Web Archives

https://www.swarthmore.edu/college-archives/get-started-archives-research

http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2009/02/15/best-sager-fund/

https://wayback.archive-it.org/230/20141019180531/http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2009/02/15/best-sager-fund/

Snapshots of websites at particular points in time

Original link from 2009 (no longer available online):

Copy of this page saved in the TriCo Web Archive on 10/19/2014:

Web Archives

https://web.archive.org/web/20080430040544/http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/sager/sager2007/index.html

Swarthmore Archived Websites
(part of TriCo Web Archives)

Want to use web archives for historical research? Look for old URLs/links. Even small changes to links matter for finding saved copies.

https://wayback.archive-it.org/230/20190109170114/http://qtc.swarthmore.edu/index.html

https://wayback.archive-it.org/230/20110413212050/http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/qtc/

Library of Congress LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive

Queer Digital History Project

search example

Prepare for your visit

Do:

Schedule an appointment (link here)
Request materials in advance
Talk to the archivist(s)

Don't:

Bring food or drink
Bring pens
Forget to record/photograph citation info!

Handle materials carefully
Place folders/materials flat on the table
Keep folders and pages in order

Working with archival materials

Let's take a break!

Restrooms

Closest all-gender bathroom is on the 2nd floor. There's also one on the 1st floor.

Women's & men's rooms are on this floor.

Databases for queer & trans histories

Classification, metadata, and why they matter

Correcting the record, critical reading, or both?

Drabinski, Emily. “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction.” The Library Quarterly 83, no. 2 (2013): 94–111. https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1086/669547.

Adler, Melissa. Cruising the Library: Perversities in the Organization of Knowledge. Fordham University Press, 2017. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xhr79m.

Eli Clare, Making at Unmaking Categories

Eli Clare's records in Tripod

Virtual International Authority File (VIAF ) for Eli Clare

Adler, Melissa. “‘Let’s Not Homosexualize the Library Stacks’: Liberating Gays in the Library Catalog.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 24, no. 3 (2015): 478–507. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24616519.