T-Shirt Collection
Our collection of 1,119 t-shirts could be called “Clothes with a Message.”
Some of those messages are personal, and the shirts often are one of a kind, handmade, with sequins or graphic designs, letting the world know something about the maker: “New Rage Dyke”; how she feels about her mother: “Daughter of a Dyke” (front), “Damn Proud” (back); or her lover: “you make me clit-happy and labia-laughing.”
Some shirts commemorate events, like “Seneca Peace Camp, 1985”; “Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference,” “National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays,” “1979 March on Washington,” ” Proud of Our Culture, Proud of Our Heritage,” “San Diego Women’s Music Festival, 1975.” Others identify groups: “Dyke Patrol” (1973); “Salsa Soul, Third World Women Incorporated” (1974, the oldest African American Lesbian group in the US); and “The Lesbian Avengers” (front), “We Recruit “ (back), from 1992.
There are T-shirts from bars (Grace and Rubies, Iowa City, IA), music festivals (Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, several years), and political activism (“Stop Brigs,” a California campaign; “AIDS is a Women’s Issue” (New York ACT UP, 1990).” The oldest shirts are from 1970 (“Lavender Menace,” worn during an action by Radicalesbians at the Congress to Unite Women), while the newest one in this display is from 2018 “Revolting Lesbians” (front), “Resistance is Not Enough, Revolt, Revolt, Revolt” (back).
All these t-shirts have been catalogued, and the database can be searched by keywords in each field including the text, graphic, year, event, organization, city, state, country, community (Lesbian, LGBTQ+, bisexual, transgender, Feminist, women, etc.), and by subject descriptions (e.g., political, AIDS, visibility, businesses, culture, theater,activism etc.). We coded the style, the color of the shirt, the print and design and, if known, the designer, donor, and any information about the story behind the T-shirt.
They tell a story about who we are and what our lives are like now, and what they were like in the past. The collection is still growing, we have more shirts in our holdings, waiting for processing and cataloging.
If you are interested in any of these images for research or editorial use, please contact us at images@lesbianherstoryarchives.org
We do not license these images for commercial use.