We Are Everywhere: Lesbians in the Archive

Alison Bechdel discovers lesbian autobiographies in this excerpt from Fun Home.

Libraries are sites of self-discovery. Many “coming out” stories feature accounts of individuals finding queerness for the first time while reading. In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel describes how, in 1979, she searched “homosexuality” in her college library’s card catalog, dissatisfied with the clinical definition of “lesbian” she found in the dictionary. She discovered a small trove of queer books, and in them, queer role models: adult lesbians living openly and without shame. Eventually, Bechdel gained the courage to seek queer community outside of books: she attended Gay Union Meetings, fell in love, came out, and in time became the celebrated cartoonist we know today. For Bechdel and many others, the library creates an opportunity to learn about queerness without coming out before one feels ready. Today, in a twenty-first century spin on Bechdel’s search, young lesbians might discover Bechdel’s work in our libraries’ digital catalogs.

We are Everywhere explores the relationship between lesbians, archives, and lesbian objects in archives, uncovering moments where lesbians deliberately introduce themselves into the mainstream historical record with younger generations in mind.

Alison Bechdel reads all the books on lesbianism she can find in this excerpt from Fun Home.

This exhibition first examines what types of objects are catalogued as “lesbian” in libraries. Next, it looks at how queerness hides in plain sight in Harlem-Renaissance era archives. Third, we see Silvia Dobson negotiate the ethics of closeting in lesbian autobiography. Fourth, Lisbet Tellefsen meticulously archives Aché so that future Black lesbians “trying to organize and do work will have it a little easier.” Finally, we see lesbians refuse to be erased from the AIDS crisis, fighting for healthcare and memorialization. These objects are a small sample of the material traces left by our vast, continually discovered queer history. We are everywhere. We write, we love, we care, we see. We name ourselves.