Mazer Archives June 2021 Newsletter | Out of the Archives: Mazer T-Shirt Archiving Project

Lisa Kahn’s Story:

Since September of 2020, I have been working with the Mazer as an archival intern. Due to the necessary restrictions COVID engendered, none of us could really work at the Archive for nearly a year. The projects I have worked on for the past 9 months have been incredibly inspirational and fulfilling, and yet coming into the Archive in May, fully vaccinated and masked up, to work hands on with our T-shirt collection was the final piece of this internship I was missing. Handling the soft textiles, taking note of the signs of wear, like tears and bleach stains, were such a powerful reminder of the living history in the Mazer’s walls. Each tee had a story, and it was hard not to imagine up stories for each one. Like a powder blue T-shirt with a simple faded graphic — “Lean on Me I Am Your Sister -Cris Williamson” — and blotches of discoloration interrupting the peaceful blue. These blotches reminded me of makeup stains, and given the nature of the graphic (“lean on me”), I couldn’t help but think that this shirt was worn by a woman with dear friends, leaning on her and leaving behind a smudge of foundation from their faces while resting at a music festival or just resting at home. The breadth of topics these hundreds of tees display, from music, to protests, to cheeky and proud slogans, could make any visitor to the Archive feel the strength and love that has been core to feminism and lesbian activism, and wonder what other stories they have yet to discover in the Archives’ boxes and folders…

Image Caption: Lisa Kahn archiving T-Shirts in the Mazer processing area.

Image Caption: Lisa Kahn and Julia Tanenbaum, UCLA graduate student interns, holding up Mazer T-Shirts in the processing area of the Mazer.