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Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland Records

 Collection
Identifier: R0151-GLCCB

  • Staff Only
  • Place requests at folder level.

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the history of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) between 1979 and 2015. The bulk of the collection is a set of "Gay Life" newspapers dating from 1979 to 2014. The collection also includes GLCCB program files, GLCCB photographs and posters, Pride festival planning records and ephemera, artifacts from the former community center on Chase Street and The Hippo nightclub, and memorabilia from the community. Also present are nine video (digital files) oral history interviews conducted in 2012 for the Center's 35th anniversary.

Dates

  • 1979-2015

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Some sections of the collection are unprocessed. Digital versions of the oral history interviews in this collection are available online through this finding aid.

Conditions Governing Use

The GLCCB retains ownership, full copyright, and all other rights with respect to this collection.

The creator of the nine oral history interviews in this collection, Denise Duarte, retains all copyright and/or related rights to those interviews. Dr. Marlene J. Adrian served as videographer during the creation of the video interviews. Special Collections and Archives provides viewing and online streaming access for educational and research purposes only.

Historical Note

The Gay Community Center of Baltimore (GCCB) was founded in 1977. In 1985, the Center's name was updated to include the word Lesbian. By 2000, the name was revised to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB). In 2019, the name changed to its current form: The Pride Center of Maryland.

Over the years the Center provided outreach, education, and services to the community, including a health clinic, regular printings of the GCCB newsletter which eventually became the Baltimore Gay Paper (BGP) and was later titled "Gay Life," the annual Pride celebration in Baltimore City, and more.

Between 1980 and 2014, the GLCCB operated out of 241 W. Chase Street. In 2014, the GLCCB moved its headquarters to the Waxter Center, a city-owned senior citizens complex at 1000 Cathedral Street. To prepare for the move from their longtime organizational home, GLCCB volunteers formed an archives committee and sought a community partner to help safeguard their collection of historically important records, including a near-complete set of Baltimore’s Gay Life newspapers dating from 1979 to 2014.

In addition to the work of the GLCCB archives committee, the Center celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2012 and participated in a local oral history project. The project was coordinated by Denise Duarte, a graduate student in the Community Arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art and GLCCB artist in residence.

[Information for this historical note was collection from the Pride Center of Maryland website (www.pridecentermd.org/history/)]

Extent

127.00 Linear feet : 127 linear feet of analog materials and 3.757 Gigabytes (9 [.mov] moving image files) oral history digital files

Arrangement

Collection is arranged in five series:

  • Gay Life Newspaper, April 1979-October 2015
  • Organizational Records
  • Photographs
  • Memorabilia
  • Oral Histories, 2012

Custodial History

The collection was deposited at the University of Baltimore through a temporary memorandum of understanding signed by Matthew Thom, GLCCB Executive Director, on December 13, 2013. Nine additional accessions were transferred to be added to the collection by the GLCCB Archives Committee, Louis Hughes, Mimi Demissew, Mardon Rosa Walker, June Horner, and Patrick Alexander between December 2015 and April 2020.

Accessing Digital Copies

Digital versions of items in this collection are available online. Locate records by using the "Print" button above, or browse records in “Collection Organization." Records with associated digital objects are identified with a red Digital Object icon.

Processing Information

Newspapers (series 1) processed by Aiden Faust in 2016. Organizational records (seires 2) inventoried by GLCCB volunteers, 2013-2016, and Johnny Bailey in 2017. Oral histories (series 5) processed by Laura Bell and Fatemeh Rezaei in 2020. The remainder of the collection is minimally described at the box level.

Title
Finding aid for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland Records
Author
Finding aid prepared by Special Collections and Archives staff in 2013-2016 and by Johnny Bailey (2017). Revised by staff (2013-2017). Revised by Laura Bell and Fatemeh Rezaei (May 2020).
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Baltimore Studies Archives Repository

Contact:
H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons, Room 104
1415 Maryland Avenue
Baltimore Maryland 21201 USA
410-837-4253