The Lesbian Herstory Archives

The Lesbian Herstory Archives, which was founded in 1974 and originally housed in the apartment shared by Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel, exists to gather and preserve records of Lesbian lives and activities so that future generations will have ready access to materials relevant to their lives. The process of gathering this material will uncover and collect our herstory denied to us previously by patriarchal historians in the interests of the culture which they serve. We will be able to analyze and reevaluate the Lesbian experience; we also hope the existence of the Archives will encourage Lesbians to record their experiences in order to formulate our living herstory. The Archives' principles strive to be inclusive and non-institutional and reveal the Archives' commitment to living history, to housing the past along with the present.