'The Gay Revolution" The Story of the Struggle' Book Talk, "Question and Answer 7 of 16", Lillian Faderman, 2015/10/18
[caption: Lillian Faderman, Historian & Author of, The Gay Revolution (Q&A 7)]
Audience question interpreted by ASL interpreter: I am honored to sit in this auditorium with you, and I wanted to let you know that I’m working on, as a deaf, queer–I’m working on deaf queer literature, and I’m trying to find an archive for that information. I have some people in my group who have different issues, and we want to know how you apply the queer theory in the general history of the queer history, and how did you train yourself to work in the archive–to work with the archive, I’m sorry, to become an archivist?
Faderman: I don’t know if I’m an archivist, but I certainly have found archives absolutely crucial, and one of the best things that I’ve found is you could go into a good archive with just a general idea of what you want, and if you’re lucky, as I have been if you find a good archivist, they are so familiar with every single holding that they say, “You want this, but you also want that.” I had one wonderful experience at Mount Holyoke, working on an earlier book. I was working on To Believe in Women, and I knew that there were love letters between Mary Woolley, who had been the president of Mount Holyoke, and Jeanette Marks, in the Mount Holyoke archives. I didn’t know if they would give me trouble when I asked for them, but I just went in there saying, “I would like to look at these letters between Mary Woolley and Jeanette Marks,” and that wonderful archivist brought out literally these rolling carts full of letters, because she knew the collection so well and she knew exactly what I needed, and I think that’s true at most archives. I think that a good archivist knows the collection well and to be very helpful.
[END OF VIDEO]
Interviewee: Lillian Faderman
Interviewer: Audience member
Transcriber: April C.
Transcriber: Mikhail Z.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: October 18, 2015
Release Date: October 25, 2015
Location: City Council Chambers in West Hollywood, California
Interview Length: 00:02:16