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Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project collection

 Collection
Identifier: Coll 520

Content Description

The collection consists of video recorded interviews of 83 people in 2018 and 2019. These interviews capture a range of engaging and important stories that reveal new angles on lesbian history, women’s history, the counterculture movement in the 1960s-1980s, Oregon history, feminism, sexuality, intentional communities, and women working in jobs reserved for men. Looking back over 25-50 years, the narrators reflect on the complex relationship of individual aspirations and larger social movements in times of dramatic historical change. These women founded cornerstone organizations central to Eugene’s history and influenced Oregon’s political landscape. They created and worked in collective businesses, ran printing presses, and founded cultural organizations (theater companies and dance troupes, music bands and choirs) and gathered in lesbian cultural spaces (book stores, martial arts studios, restaurants, bars, and softball teams). They became leaders of Eugene community service agencies and worked in city and state government positions. A number were instrumental in leading important legal challenges of discriminatory policies at the county and state levels regarding employment and housing protections, benefits, lesbian and gay adoption, and marriage equality. Those who came to study or teach at the University of Oregon were influential in making institutional change protecting the rights of lesbians and gay men. Many of the narrators have retired and continue to be involved in vibrant artistic, scientific and political work.

Dates

  • Creation: 2018-2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to the public.

Collection must be used in Special Collections & University Archives Reading Room.

Selected items are closed until Summer 2022 (Jodie Mooney) and 2028 (Wendy Woods).

Collection digital files may be requested through Special Collections and University Archives Reproductions Request Form or accessed online.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights and copyrights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives.

Biographical / Historical

In the summer of 2018 Professor Judith Raiskin of the University of Oregon Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Linda Long, Curator of Manuscripts in the University of Oregon Libraries, developed a project to interview members of the longtime lesbian community in Eugene, Oregon. The majority of the video interviews were conducted in the summer of 2018 but several more were conducted later that fall and then subsequently the following year. The interviews were transcribed and the videos were prepared for viewing online. Transcripts were also printed and bound and form one of the two parts of this collection, the other being the videos and scanned transcripts, both of which are available online through this finding aid. The bound transcriptions are available for use in the Special Collections and University Archives’ reading room in Knight Library, University of Oregon campus.

Extent

618 gigabyte(s) : 83 video interviews

4.5 linear feet (3 containers) : 3 record storage boxes

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project was conducted by Linda J. Long and Judith Raiskin in 2018 and 2019. The Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project collection consists of interviews of 83 people for the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project, conducted by Professor Judith Raiskin and Curator Linda Long at the University of Oregon starting in the summer of 2018. Seventy-three interview sessions were conducted, nine of which were joint interviews with more than one person.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged in two series:

1. Interview videos and digital transcripts 2. Printed transcripts

All materials are arranged in alphabetical order by interviewee's last names.

Existence and Location of Copies

Selected items are available online in the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project Collection in Oregon Digital.

Existence and Location of Copies

Selected items are available online in the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project Collection in Aviary.

Title
Guide to Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project Collection
Status
Complete Description
Date
2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English

Repository Details

Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1299 USA