International Gay Information Center records

1974-1989 [bulk 1979-1983]

The International Gay Information Center (IGIC) began as a project of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), intended to document the entire history of gay culture. Aware that the discipline of gay studies was controversial, the Gay Activists Alliance noted the absence of a comprehensive collection of gay-themed material for academic and general use. Earlier attempts to build a similar archive, including one that the National Gay Archive and Library Committee intended to be housed in the New York Public Library, had been unsuccessful. In 1979, GAA board members John Hammond and Bruce Eves were charged with collecting everything they could find on the subject, with the project initially titled the International Gay History Archive (IGHA).

The IGHA included books, periodicals, pamphlets, newsletters, press releases, and ephemera related in any way to gay rights, history, or culture. The Archive collected historical material as well as contemporary items. From the beginning, the IGHA fulfilled its dual mandate as an academic repository and a public resource. Duplicates and copies of parts of the collection were provided to libraries and other archives for research purposes, while pamphlets and other widely available items were sent, free of charge, to interested members of the public.

The GAA disbanded in 1981, but the IGHA continued independently of its parent organization with Hammond and Eves, assisted by volunteers, maintaining the Archive. In 1982, the International Gay History Archive became a subsidiary of the newly incorporated International Gay Information Center, but continued its mission unabated. In 1989, the IGIC donated its entire holdings to the New York Public Library.