The nation’s first ever museum devoted to LGBT history, opened in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood Thursday, showcasing archives that reflect nearly a century of gay culture and LGBT life.
With two exhibits and hundreds of articles, the GLBT History Museum is the world’s second museum dedicated solely to gay and lesbian archives and materials, museum officials said. The only other one is in Germany.
“A quarter century after the founding of the GLBT Historical Society, we’re proud to open a museum to showcase our community’s history,” said Paul Boneberg, executive director of the Historical Society.
“The GLBT History Museum is in the heart of the Castro, a neighborhood visited not only by locals, but also by tens of thousands of tourists every year who come in search of queer culture.”
The museum will feature two debut exhibitions: In the main gallery, “Our Vast Queer Past: Celebrating GLBT History,” curated by historians Gerard Koskovich, Don Romesburg and Amy Sueyoshi; and in the front gallery, “Great Collections of the GLBT Historical Society Archives.”
Often referred to as the “queer Smithsonian,” the GLBT Historical Society maintains one of the largest archives of GLBT historical materials anywhere in the world.
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The museum is located at 4127 18th St. in San Francisco.
