Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation, Sponsor/Advertiser, and Nyc Aenjai Graphics. Lesbian Herstory Archives, Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation, Inc.: in memory of the voices we have lost. , 1980. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016648504/
According to GLSEN’s 2021 National School Climate Survey, “Only 16.3% of LGBTQ+ students were taught positive representations about LGBTQ+ people, history, or events in their schools; 14.4% had been taught negative content about LGBTQ+ topics” (GLSEN 2022). Educators can use this image with their students to introduce conversations about how history is made. Ask questions like: How do we know what we think we know about the past? What gaps and silences exist in the historical record? How are archives and libraries not neutral actors as they make decisions about whom and what to include and exclude? Using this image from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and introducing students to the work of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in general, can help students to think through these questions and others, particularly as they relate to LGBTQ+ history. This moment in time (2025) is seeing legislation working explicitly to exclude LGBTQ+ texts, histories, and voices from school curricula. Teachers and students should consider how they can address the silence and/or erasure of LGBTQ+ voices from the classroom.
This is a print from the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Its caption notes that it features “Mary Jane Taylor, friend of Mabel Hampton, c. 1930.” The print includes text that says, “In memory of the voices we have lost.” The print is an advertisement for the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
The Lesbian Herstory Archives were founded in New York in the 1970s by women who had been part of gay liberation movements and realized that “Lesbian history was ‘disappearing as quickly as it was being made’” (“About”). The Lesbian Herstory Archives project works to “gather, preserve, and provide access to records of Lesbian lives and activities.” Their collections document the lives of individuals as well as groups, and includes letters, zines, t-shirts, videos, buttons, and many other materials (“About”).
- What do you see in this image? Who does it feature? What do we know about her?
- What do you think the words on this image—“In memory of those we have lost”—mean? To whom or what do they refer?
- What do you think is the purpose of the Lesbian Herstory Archives?
Common Core State Standards
RI.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- Students will examine the image and identify details that help them to analyze what the Lesbian Herstory Archives are.
RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
- Students will examine the image and identify details that help them to analyze what the Lesbian Herstory Archives are, as well as ask questions that the image leaves uncertain but which might help spark further research. (For example, students might see that the featured subject is a friend of Mabel Hampton, and do research to learn about Mabel Hampton’s connection with the Lesbian Herstory Archives.)
- Introduce students to the term “material culture.” You can use the Library of Congress’s Research Guide to material culture. Have students watch this video on how historians use material culture to learn about the past. Duke University’s Rubenstein Library has useful resources for teaching materiality online. Teachers could use this video from the Library of Congress—“What was in Lincoln’s pockets?”—to discuss how Lincoln’s personal artifacts were used to humanize him. This would be interesting for students to discuss alongside the Lesbian Herstory Archives’ stated goal of “document[ing] the widest range of Lesbian experience from all geographic, cultural, political and economic backgrounds and historical contexts, not just the lives of the famous or the published” (“Our Herstory”).
- After having a class discussion of this image, introduce students to the Lesbian Herstory Archives and what its project is. You may think about creating a choice board featuring some of the different items in the Lesbian Herstory Archives. For example, you might choose images from the digital collections for t-shirts, buttons, graphics, banners, and photos, and have students examine those images in groups.
- Then, have students discuss what tools the archives provide to LGBTQ+ people and their allies. How can archives help us to learn about the past, navigate the present, and build different futures together?
- Teaching about the existence of LGBTQ+ people and the strategies used by LGBTQ+ activists to resist oppression will be an issue for parents/guardians who don’t want students to learn about LGBTQ+ people or their histories.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Learning for Justice, “Queer People Have Always Existed: Teach Like It”; “Incorporating LGBTQ History in your classroom”; NEA, “Defending the Freedom of our LGBTQ+ Students to be Themselves”; GLSEN’s 2021 National School Climate Survey.
- “We the Future Are - Unapologetically Queer” – This is an image from an Amplifier campaign that identified young activists engaged in different social justice movements. Students could discuss how both images think about queer futures.
- “I never loved a man the way that I love you, Gay Pride Week, 1973.” – This is a poster from the 1970s. Students could discuss what they learn about queer history from this image.
- Eanet, L. “Learning from Queer Libraries and Archives in a Time of Erasure.” Autostraddle. https://www.autostraddle.com/learning-from-queer-libraries-and-archives-in-a-time-of-erasure/.
- Black Lesbian Archives: https://blacklesbianarchives.wixsite.com/info/home
- “LGBTQ History in Public Schools,” Queer America podcast, Learning for Justice. https://www.learningforjustice.org/podcasts/queer-america/lgbtq-history-in-public-schools.
- LGBTQ Curricular Laws.
- Smith, “The Problem of Archival Silences,” Facing History.
- Kosciw, J. G., Clark, C. M., & Menard, L. (2022). The 2021 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in our nation's schools. New York: GLSEN.
- “About.” Lesbian Herstory Archives, May 20, 2024. https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/about.
- “Our Herstory.” Lesbain Herstory Archives, May 20, 2024. https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/about/a-brief-history/.