Following the announcement earlier this year on the Brighton Our Story website that the charity were unable to continue their work, there was a widely publicised public meeting on October 7 at the Marlborough in Princess Street to discuss the future of an LGBT archive for the city.
Those present heard that there would soon be an opportunity to access material about Brighton and Hove’s LGBT history, at the Keep, a new East Sussex Archive, due to open in Falmer in November. Much of the Ourstory archive has now been deposited at the Keep, where it will be catalogued and maintained as a separate LGBT history collection.
It’s great news that so many sources about queer history will become available to researchers in the not too distant future, and that East Sussex County Record Office, who will be managing the Keep, welcome the input of the LGBT community into how the collection develops, and how it is catalogued. More information about volunteering opportunities will be available soon.
The meeting decided to set up a steering group of people from the LGBT community, so that our views can be communicated about issues like what the collecting policy should be, and so that exhibitions could be organised by the LGBT community in liaison with the Keep, to make these precious records of our past accessible to all.
The following were chosen by the meeting as a steering group to get the LGBT archive group going, by drafting its initial mission statement, and applying to become a community interest company: Melita Dennett, Jill Gardiner, Tina Huggins, James Ledward, and Rachel Whitbread, Jane Wuster, and a student from Brighton University Queer History Hub.
This steering group will keep in touch with the wider community – watch this space, or contact LGBTarchive@yahoo.com if you’d like to get email updates or to offer to help.
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