Lavender Legacies Guide: United States: Connecticut

Back to state listing

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut
Wesleyan University

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Location: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
Delivery Address:
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: (203) 432-2977
Fax: (203) 432-4047
Contact: Timothy Young, Curator, Modern Books and Manuscripts
Email: beinecke.library@yale.edu
Internet Address:  http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/
Hours: Mondays-Thursdays 9:00 AM - 6:45 PM
Fridays 9:00 AM - 4:45 PM
Wheelchair access: Yes
History: The LGBTQ collection grew out of strengths from earlier collections, focused because of researcher interest and educational program objectives. No written mission statement aside form general development aims.
Information about holdings:
Reference their online directory: http://guides.library.yale.edu/content.php?pid=75228&sid=636134

Archives
The Beinecke holds a number of archival collections that deal with issues of sexuality and sexual identity. Guides to most of these collections are searchable in the Yale Finding Aid Database.
James Baldwin Early Manuscripts and Papers
William Beckford Collection
Myron Brinig papers YCAL MSS 69
Bryher Papers
Chiron Review Papers
Alfred Corn Papers
Hart Crane Collection
Tunis Dean Papers
Silvia Dobson papers GEN MSS 409
Norman Douglas Collection
Norman Douglas Collection Part II
Richard Dunn letters and photographs relating to Hugh Walpole, 1940-1951.
GEN MSS 147
Correspondence between Kenward Elmslie and William Bamberger UNCAT MSS 869
Max Ewing Papers [a.k.a. Imlac?]
Charles Henri Ford Papers
Robert Giard Papers
Witold Gombrowicz Papers
Correspondence between Witold Gombrowicz and Mariano Betelu GEN.MSS.560
Marsden Hartley Papers
H.D. Papers
Langston Hughes Papers
Kathryn Hulme Papers
Konstanty Jeleński Papers
James Kirkup Papers
Library of Richard Labonte (printed items, catalogued individually – check database of Uncataloged Acquisitions)
Glenway Wescott Collection of Nelson Lansdale Papers
David Leavitt Papers
George Platt Lynes Diaries & Memorabilia
George Platt Lynes Scrapbooks
W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Robert McAlmon Papers
Henry McBride Papers and Addition
J. D McClatchy Papers
James Ingram Merrill Papers
Correspondence between Bill Miller and Paul Cadmus, Alfred C. Kinsey, Monroe Wheeler and others, diaries by Bill Miller IN PROCESS, INQUIRE
Ethan Mordden Papers
Photographs of gay circus performers YCAL MSS 137
Edouard Roditi letters : to Steven Watson, 1991 Jul 26-1992 Feb 26.
YCAL MSS FILE 7
Pavel Tchelitchew Collection
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers (from their personal collections)
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Collection (additions from various sources)
Alfred Stieglitz\Georgia O'Keeffe Archive (from their personal collections)
Alfred Stieglitz\Georgia O'Keeffe Collection (additions from various sources)
Henry Graham Dakyns Papers, especially correspondence with John Addington Symonds
Allen Tanner Papers
Pavel Tchelitchew Collection
Sarah Teasdale (Survey only) ZA TEASDALE
Virgil Thomson papers relating to Gertrude Stein
Violet Trefusis Papers
Evelyn Irons correspondence with Vita Sackville-West GEN MSS 422
Vita Sackville-West papers relating to Violet Trefusis
Glenway Wescott Papers
Monroe Wheeler Papers
Edmund White Papers and addition
Oscar Wilde Collection
Thornton Wilder Papers (from his and his family's personal collections)
Thornton Wilder Collection (additions from various sources)

Magazines & other Serials
The Beinecke holds one of the most complete collections of Gay and Lesbian serials in the world. Gathered by Knud Rame, a Danish bookseller and astrologer, the Rame collection contains more than 3400 issues of around 200 different titles, dating between 1906 and 1993. This extraordinarily expansive group of periodicals features items in English, French, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Japanese. The earliest item is a 1906 issue of Adolph Brand’s Der Eigene, often called the first true homosexual periodical. The collection advances up to the early 1990s with a run of Christopher Street.
This Rame collection can be divided roughly into one-half homophile movement; one-quarter entertainment/popular culture; and one-quarter pictorial/physique magazines. In addition to further issues of Der Eigene, highlights include a complete run of Menschenrecht/Der Kreis: (1938-1967), a complete run of The Ladder, published by The Daughters of Bilitis (1956-1972), and One Magazine (1953-1972), three seminal lesbian and gay rights movement magazines. Other significant titles and strengths include: Dorian Book Quarterly, Die Freundschaft, Gay Power, Die Insel, Man and Society, Pan, Physique Pictorial, Tangents, Vector, and Vennen. There are a number of specialized underground newsletters, many photostatted and copied, that are practically impossible to find in research libraries. Many of the issues from homophile movements include membership flyers, announcements and other pieces of ephemera.
These titles are being cataloged in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog. For any titles that are not yet in Orbis, they can be found in the Beinecke Library’s Uncataloged Acquisitions Database.
You can also try searching Orbis for Keyword=LGBTQ + Quick Limits=Serials and Journals for more recently added serials

Books
Many authors represented by archival collections are present on Beinecke’s books shelves, as well. These authors can be searched by name in ORBIS. Authors who wrote on sexual and erotic themes respresented in Yale collections include the following:
Alibert, Francois Paul, 1873-
Genet, Jean, 1910-1986
Louÿs, Pierre, 1870-1925
Perceau, Louis, 1883-1942
Pia, Pascal
Sade, marquis de, 1740-1814.
In the realm of general materials relating to sexuality, there are sections of materials in Beinecke that cover a broad spectrum of topics. For example, there are collections of “Tijuana bibles,” sexually explicit cartoon books from the 1920s and 1930s. Search ORBIS for “Tijuana bibles” in KEYWORD; and search for “Tijuana” in Uncatalogued Acquisition.
A number of pulp books on female domination or “petticoat punishment” were added recently. Search ORBIS for the keyword “Mutrix” [the name of the publisher].
The call number Nqa contains a range of books about sexual behavior. Search for “Nqa” in ORBIS in “Call number (local)” for books at Beinecke and other libraries.

Digitized Material
Selected material from various collections at the Beinecke is online in the Beinecke Digital Library: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/
A few collections with significant amounts of digitized material include the Stein / Toklas collection, the Carl Van Vechten collection, and the Lesbian pulp novel collection, among others.

Collecting interests:
Collection development will continue along the lines of materials described above.

Comments about access/use:
All Yale University students and faculty, and other researchers whose work requires use of its collections are welcome to study at the Beinecke. Yale community readers need only bring their Yale ID to register by card swipe. New non-Yale library patrons may register onsite or pre-register online at http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblinfo/register.html. Please bring two forms of identification with recent photographs and a current address to validate your pre-registration. Undergraduates not enrolled in Yale College who are interested in manuscripts or archival collections should present a letter of introduction from their academic advisor or college librarian. Permission is required for access to some materials.
NOTE: Certain collections may be closed for processing. Please consult the Closed Collections Schedule, also available from the Beinecke homepage, for a list of closed archival collections.
Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done during business hours. The Public Services staff accepts completed call slips at the library's service desk. Upon request of the researcher, the staff retrieves materials within twenty minutes.
Please consult the reading room rules prior to visiting the library. The reading room is reserved for the use of the library's collections by registered researchers. All library materials must be handled with great care to ensure their safety and preservation. All research areas are accessible to the handicapped. Researchers are encouraged to bring their own laptop computers or they may borrow a laptop from the Public Services Desk. The library's laptops are equipped with wireless technology linking Yale affiliates to the university's computer network. Curators and public services librarians are available by request for reference consultations.

Services:
1. Research space
2. Reference assistance on site
3. Telephone reference
4. Internet reference (e-mail/web) – beinecke.library@yale.edu
5. Copying services
6. Audiovisual facilities
7. Exhibitions Loan agreements for exhibits YES, conditionally
8. Other (specify) MORE INFO AT: http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/

Indices, finding aids, collection descriptions:
ORBIS – Yale's Online Catalog (MARC): Records for virtually all of Beinecke's cataloged printed materials; records for cataloged manuscripts; records for some archival collections.
Database of Archival Collections and Manuscripts: Finding aids for some archival collections.
Uncataloged Acquisitions database: Records for uncataloged printed, manuscript and archival materials.
Digital Images Online: Images for a range of materials from the Beinecke's collections.

[Return to Top]