J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award: The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center of Central PA History Project

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center of Central PA History Project is a 2014 recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award honors an individual, institution, or organization that promotes greater public awareness, appreciation, or support of archives.

The LGBT History Project collects and presents the stories of LGBT history in central Pennsylvania as told by those who lived them, through written accounts and video interviews. Started in August 2012, the ongoing project has completed video oral history interviews with twenty-six individuals and collected about ten cubic feet of archival and artifact materials. The LGBT Center has developed a partnership with the Dickinson College Archives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to receive, catalog, store, and make available to researchers and the public the archival and artifact collections donated to the LGBT History Project.

The Award Committee was particularly impressed by LGBT Center’s efforts to coordinate with archival programs to ensure permanent and professional care of the collections. The committee also commended the center for providing website access to those collections.

Established in 1989, the award is named for the noted American historian J. Franklin Jameson. The LGBT Center of Central PA History Project joins National History Day as the 2014 recipients of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award.