Chronicling gay history, one book and artifact at a time
Bryan W. Knicely is president of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives of Fort Lauderdale. They recently changed their name from The Stonewall Library to The Stonewall National Museum & Archives to reflect the mission of being the Smithsonian of the LGBT community. (Sarah Dussault, Sun Sentinel / March 12, 2012)
By Johnny Diaz, Sun Sentinel
4:21 a.m. EDT, March 19, 2012
FORT LAUDERDALE —
At the Stonewall National Museum & Archives, gay history is bursting at the seams.
There's the tennis racket signed by Martina Navratilova. News clippings of former beauty queen and gay rights opponent Anita Bryant. The gavel that hammered the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy against gays and lesbians last year.
Even as libraries are shrinking and many bookstores are closing because of the Web, this repository has outgrown its shelf space since moving into its home on East Sunrise Boulevard three years ago.
"It's a good sign. It's a sign of the vibrance of this movement,'' said U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who visits Fort Lauderdale twice a year with his partner and recently loaned the gavel. "This is a very important cause to document."
With 25,000 books and videos, Stonewall is the largest circulating library of gay literature and periodicals and one of at least a handful nationally. It changed its name last year, from the Stonewall Library & Archives, to reflect a more national focus with its collection and traveling exhibitions. The organization's advertising boasts that it's "the LGBT community's Smithsonian."
"We are this national treasure of stuff and we needed to have a name that reflects that,'' said Bryan Knicely president of the nonprofit Stonewall, which has about 7,000 items in its archives, representing 8,000 linear feet or about 1 1/2 miles of materials.
But the center also houses slices of old gay South Florida. Remember the outdoor sign of the former Marlin Beach Hotel, a popular beach spot for Fort Lauderdale gays? That sign bedecks the entrance of the library's conference room. The hotel's original blueprints are also part of the archive.
"If someone doesn't collect or preserve this, it's one of those things that gets thrown away,'' Knicely said.
As he stood inside the archive recently, Knicely was dwarfed by 16 towering rows of shelving racks packed with everything from gay pulp fiction novels from the 1950s to event buttons such as one from the 1982 Gay Games in San Francisco. Sealed plastic bags display jerseys from local and national gay sports leagues.
"When you are part of a community like the LGBT community, unless you know what has happened before you and what rights you have been fighting for, you really have no sense of place in your community,'' he said. "So that's why it's important to preserve this so the story can always be told."
The archive is part of that story. The library got its start in 1973 when Mark Silber, a 19-year-old student at Florida Atlantic University, began collecting gay books and magazines to better understand his homosexuality.
The collection "was a lending library among friends that grew and grew,'' said John Coppola, a Miami-based consultant for museums in Latin America and former head of exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
"I remember when the library was in a closet,'' said Fred Fejes, a communications professor at FAU. "It was a real band of very loyal archivists that kept this going on for a long time."
The library eventually found a home at the former Gay and Lesbian Community Center on Andrews Avenue.
But the collection wasn't always embraced.
In 2007, then-Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle objected to the library moving to a city-owned building, citing concerns over some pornographic material in a space at the ArtServe center next to Holiday Park, where children played.
Naugle lost the fight, and Stonewall officially relocated to its new home in 2009, with local officials including Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti on hand to celebrate.
Back then, only a third of its shelves were full and the archive's shelving racks were bare.
These days, the library is so full that new additions top bookshelves. And the archive section is at 95 percent capacity.
Stonewall receives about 200 new and used books each year from snowbirds and local residents. Donated goods vary in size. One recent donation: 30 boxes of music videos that played at the former Cathode Ray bar on Las Olas Boulevard. And autographed sheet music by the writers of the Broadway musical "Hairspray." |
