USC has taken possession of what is billed as the world's largest research collection related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, the school announced Thursday.
The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives includes pioneering magazines, papers of activists and entertainers, and other materials, with a focus on Los Angeles.
"The USC Libraries will make the ONE Archives collection accessible to future generations of students, scholars and researchers at USC and around the world," said Catherine Quinlan, dean of the USC Libraries.
"The ONE Archives collection is one of the most important scholarly collections of materials related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in the country, if not the world," said Michael Quick, executive vice dean of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.
The ONE Archives collection covers such watershed events in gay and transgender history as the Stonewall riots of 1969, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and the current debate over Proposition 8, California's Marriage Protection Act.
The collection also highlights pre-Stonewall history and the significant role of Los Angeles and West Coast activists in advancing LGBT issues.
The collection will remain at its current location at 909 W. Adams Blvd. in Los Angeles, where researchers and the public are welcome to explore the materials Tuesday through Saturday.
