Curators in Conversation: Conceiving the Queer Past at the GLBT Historical Society Museum

Abstract

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society in San Francisco is an internationally recognised, community-based queer public history institution founded in 1985. In its early years, its work focused largely on recovering and preserving archival records, periodicals, photographs, art and artefacts documenting the histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and cultures in Northern California. The society also sponsored programmes and occasional small exhibitions in borrowed spaces before finally creating a standalone pop-up museum in the city’s historically gay Castro District in 2008-2009, followed by a still-operating museum in a storefront in the same neighbourhood in 2011. In the following conversation, three of the GLBT Historical Society’s long-time stakeholders and frequent curators address the history, mission, theory, practice, and impact of the institution.