Preserving Pride: The Legacy and Future of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library

Photo © Courtesy of The Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library

Preserving Pride: The Legacy and Future of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library

For millennia, libraries, archives, and museums have been a way of judging a society’s culture and commitment to education. These great institutions have stood the test of time, from Cleopatra’s Alexandria Library to the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. The Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library is a testament to the LGBTQ+ community’s commitment and dedication to preserving and protecting its history and culture. Our exhibits bring that history and culture to life, making it relevant and engaging for audiences in and out of the community.

For over 51 years, Stonewall’s library has been the largest in the queer world, with over 30,000 volumes. These books have been banned and burned, and yet the collections grow.

Knowledge is power, and Stonewall’s mission, ensuring a well-informed community can take on today's challenges by knowing where they came from, has never been more critical.

With local, national, and international attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, Stonewall stands as a beacon, providing context and serving as a reminder that we have overcome these obstacles before and come out even stronger.

In celebration of the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising (June 28, 1969), the museum built a life-sized replica of the bar as it would have looked on that date before the police raided the space and changed history. The exhibit, starting in the fall, will travel the United States for a decade, retiring on the Uprising’s 65th anniversary and becoming a permanent exhibit at the Stonewall Museum.

Over 10 years, the exhibit will introduce the nation to the history surrounding the LGBTQ+ Liberation Movement and the history of the event that launched it. The Uprising led to the start of Pride, which began in 1970 and now takes place around the world. Pride, like Stonewall itself, emerged from protest. The need to protest and protect hard-earned equal rights is never-ending.

Currently, Stonewall is looking for a permanent home for the museum, archives, and library. The collections, public programming, and exhibits require a larger home that can host tens of thousands of people looking to this institution for materials and programs that keep them informed.

“We believe it is important to stay in Florida, if we can, as it has made itself the dead center of the culture wars,” said Robert Kesten, the executive director of the organization. “Culture warriors who take books out of schools and use slogans rather than facts to attack groups, education, healthcare, and governmental opposition threaten our First Amendment rights and our very democracy. The founders of this nation believed in books, believed in education, and believed in inalienable rights. Those rights were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Our community fi ghts for these principles. We have no choice as we are a part of every other community. There is no religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, or color where we are not found. It gives us a certain responsibility to be unifi ers and not dividers."

Kesten went on to say, “The opening lines of our Constitution are so clear, ‘We The People come together to form a more perfect Union.’ If we limit that possibility by cutting funding for the arts, culture, educational institutions, libraries, and other essential learning services, we are ceding the future of this country to those who do not believe in the protections offered by our legal documents.”

Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library will continue to guard our collections and protect this important part of American history for all to enjoy for years to come.

For more information, visit stonewall-museum.org