“Yesterday Belongs to Us:” LGBTQ+ Archival Research Week 3

Continuing the theme of quoting a movie I watched this week for the title of my blog posts, this week’s quote comes from Indiana Jones and the Dials of Destiny (2023). While I personally enjoyed the film, I couldn’t help but think that I too would love to use Archimedes’ Antikythera to go back in time and see what the life of the average LGBTQ+ person in the Lehigh Valley was like. The LGBTQ+ community as a whole lost so many stories and people to the AIDS crisis, and I wish that there was a way to connect with all of those lives that were cut short. That, in my opinion, is where archival research comes in: it pays tribute to those of the past while reaffirming the current members of the community that they are not alone.

In regards to the work we did this third week at Mountaintop, we buckled down and really devoted ourselves to our work so that we could get ahead. We drafted and sent emails to local yet internationally recognized writers Carmen Maria Machado and Conner Habib (and heard back, both showing their interest in our project!), created a timeline with tasks we want to have completed by the end of the summer, and continued in-person archival research. Below is a day-by-day list stating what tasks we completed each work day, the bolded bullet representing the most important task.

06/19/23

  • Day off for the holiday

06/20/23

  • Prepared Google Slides for Weekly League Check-In
  • Attended and presented Google Slides in Weekly League Check-In
  • Revised drag photo drive proposal with feedback from Robin & Susan
  • Sent emails to local, famous LGBTQ+ authors (to potentially gain archival material, set up oral history interviews, etc.)
    • Conner Habib
    • Carmen Maria Machado
  •  Generated archival narrative questions to answer
  • Discussed general concerns about workplace environment and how to overcome them
  • Continued ongoing archival research
  • Prepared tasks for the next work day

06/21/23

  • Finalized narrative “elevator pitch”
  • Met for a productive meeting with Mary
  • Created a timeline (with due dates) for “big picture” tasks
  • Sorted and shared completed archival work
    • Digitized & non-digitized

06/22/23

  • Got in contact with Mary
    • Updated her on our approved timeline
    • Sent link to Drag show that the team wants to attend in order to collect archival material
  •  Shared archival research with one another
  • Brainstormed common threads between archival materials
    • Potential headings for exhibit
  •  Added “Amending Allentown” exhibit to the WordPress website
    • Spent time with formatting to make it aesthetically pleasing and accessible

06/23/23

  • Continued in-person archival research at Muhlenberg
  • Sent an email to a local, famous LGBTQ+ person (to potentially gain archival material, set up oral history interviews, etc.)
    • Alix Olson
  •  Sent an email to Robin in regards to the team aiding in two in-person collection drives
    • July 8th & August 5th

Looking forward to next week, we plan to delve further into the archives (both digitally and in-person), think about the threads tying our exhibit together, and travel to the Bradbury-Sullivan center to gauge the space we will use once our exhibit is live. Below I have attached pictures of our work week. Thanks for reading!