Periodicals

With over 1,000 titles and more than 17,000 issues of newspapers, magazines, ‘zines, and printed copies of e-newsletters, the Sexual Minorities Archives’ periodicals collection is unparalleled.

Visitors can browse the most recent issues of our collection from the display rack, which holds a variety of magazines, zines, newspaper and newsletters, such as Lesbian Connections, Girlfriends, or The Scarlet Leather. We also keep recent issues of mainstream periodicals that may feature LGBTQAI people on them. For example, we archived a copy of the May 2014 issue of Time Magazine, which featured Laverne Cox on the cover. Periodicals not recently published are preserved in boxes, but are still available for browsing. These periodicals are organized by title in our periodical room.

The periodicals holdings include full or near-full runs of many important publications both national and local in scope and content. We have a full run of The Lesbian Calendar, which advertised concerts, talks, and various events that occurred throughout New England and would be excellent resource for learning more about the local history of Northampton, MA, in particular.  In addition to touching on the local history of The Valley, our periodical collection also includes a full run of material that pre-dates the 1969 Stonewall rebellion.  The Ladder Magazine (published by the Daughters of Bilitis) from 1957–to 1972 touches on Lesbian life during the early days of the homophile movement, while One Institute Quarterly: Homophile Studies (published from 1958-1964) touches on gay life.