Plymouth LGBT Archive
The Plymouth LGBT Archive was created as a result of the Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Pride in Our Past’ project which saw the creation of an accession within the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office to specifically chart the history of LGBT communities in the city – often through the collection of oral history interviews. The project also informed a nine week exhibition within the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery between 28th April and 30th June 2012 and saw the formation of a charitable incorporated organisation of volunteers to create and maintain a community archive.
Pride in Our Past was born from the realisation that Plymouth’s LGBT community had people within it who had seen the world change; from a place where homosexuality could be regarded as criminal or a mental disorder into the more tolerant society of today. The aim of this archive was to document that shift in our past while considering where Plymouth is today and looking towards the future.
The primary navigation of the on-line archive follows the key themes of the Pride in Past Exhibition with ongoing additions as more of the heritage of these communities is uncovered and shared. We were honoured to be awarded the ‘Most Inspirational Archive’ of 2011 at the CAHG conference in 2012.