Mazer Archives January 2022 Newsletter | Out of the Archives: JoAnn Semones and Julie Barrow Collection
This month, Hall Frost is back to highlight the JoAnn Semones and Julie Barrow Collection.
JoAnn and Julie live in Half Moon Bay and have been married for 30 years. Both lovers of the outdoors—specifically the ocean—the two met while working for the Environmental Protection Agency around 1989. Long time volunteers for several organizations in San Mateo county, the two were Plover Watch volunteers at Half Moon Bay State Beach and docents at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, among many others. Julie went on to devote 16 years to developing and preserving the programs and grounds at Pigeon Point. JoAnn is a maritime historian and author who has written six books and countless articles, as well as the text at the Interpretive Center at Pigeon Point. According to Julie, “The lighthouse will always have a special place in our hearts, and we will always keep the light burning bright.”
Most striking about this collection is the sheer number and organization of the photos. Most of the boxes above are filled with photo albums! As you flip the pages of each album, you slowly see styles change, people age, relationships grow; you watch their entire lives unfold. To have two lives documented so well in an era before we all carried cameras in our pockets and photographed everything, is remarkable.
JoAnn and Julie have led extraordinary lives and have contributed largely to the preservation of the California coast and education for future generations to love it as they have. Yet, the significance of this collection is not simply their civic contributions; their wedding album, for example, is a pictorial narrative of Julie and JoAnn’s journey through the struggle for marriage equality- from a commitment ceremony, to a civil union, and finally a legal marriage in 2008.
Additionally, the photos of the normal moments in their lives convey an equally special importance. These everyday snapshots of family on holidays and birthdays, standing in front of photographic spots on vacations, and candid photos of loved ones like the photo above of JoAnn’s mother in Texas in the mid 40s, highlight what life was like for two lesbians spanning from the 1940s to the early 2000s.
We’re currently in the process of cataloging and rehousing this collection. That involves describing each item and moving them into special archival photo albums. This helps preserve the collection and ensure that the June L. Mazer Archives remains the place where “lesbians live forever.”