About the Archive

The LGBT Community Center National History Archive is a community-based archive that collects, preserves, and makes available to the public the documentation of LGBTQ+ lives and organizations centered in and around New York. Through our collections, we enable the stories and experiences of New York’s LGBTQ+ people to be told with historical depth and understanding.

Marsha P. Johnson

Archive Access

The Center Archive is open to all researchers, by appointment. Please search our collections to focus your research needs. Appointments are currently scheduled Thursdays 12-5:45 p.m. To make an appointment, or for more information about archive resources and donating materials, email archive@gaycenter.org.

What kind of materials are archived?

Materials in the collections run from as early as 1878 to the present day, and are made up of a variety of media, including paper, scrapbooks, photographs, audio and video recordings, pamphlets and printed materials, posters and born-digital records. Holdings consist of personal papers created by individuals and records of organizations, periodicals, organization files and The Center's organizational records.

40th anniversary of The Center Dance Committee

Please share materials and memories from your time as a volunteer with the Dance Committee. If someone you know was a volunteer at The Center who can no longer speak for themselves please share their name and what they did so they can be included. If you did not volunteer but regularly attended Center Dances or other Dance Committee events such as Garden Party or Pride, we invite your contributions.

Rights and Reproductions

The Center Archive is unable to fulfill reproduction and licensing requests at this time due to staff capacity. Please reach out to archive@gaycenter.org with any questions and check back for future updates. We recommend browsing digitized material on view at Google Arts & Culture.

Interactive Timeline

The Center has played a tremendous role in the nurturing and growth of the LGBTQ+ community in NYC. View our interactive timeline to get a glimpse of how we have supported the happiness and health of our community since 1983.

View Interactive Timeline