If you ask the keepers of the Ohio Lesbian Archives what the most prized item is among the decades-old collection of LGBTQ ephemera, the answer is typically not going to reveal one specific thing. The Ohio Lesbian Archives (OLA) has been collecting for decades and works to preserve LGBTQ+ history locally and beyond. To satisfy such an inquiry, you might just have to sift through the books, posters, T-shirts, letters, journals, newspapers, records, photographs and countless other materials to decide for yourself.
Because the foundation of OLA began with a combination of personal collections – which includes items from co-founders and current board members Phebe Beiser and Vic Ramstetter – the archives allows visitors to view a grand scope of LGBTQ+ history through an intimate lens that details years of pride, triumphs and devastations alike. The magnification of specific events such as the rise and fall of the Greater Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian Coalition in the ’90s tells stories that impacted lives then, and inform current events now.
Vice President of the OLA board Nancy Yerian was able to rattle off a few items of note, like an AIDS memorial quilt, a scrapbook from the 1940s made by a local woman who played for a professional women’s softball team and a body of local lesbian newsletters called Dinah before admitting that each item is special and important in its own right. Yerian is too modest to say that her project Vibrant Kin, which was exhibited in 2017, accounts for 50 years of activism in Cincinnati. The large informational panels that make up the Vibrant Kin project are stored in an accessible box in the archives and can be referred to any time upon a visit.
“People are attracted to the books, people love the art,” Yerian tells CityBeat. “It’s very hard to pick the one most special thing.”
Inside the archives at the eCenter in Over-the-Rhine, atop a 4-foot-tall filing cabinet is a collection of hand-written diaries that details years of a woman’s life. A rare collection OLA calls “Jill’s Journals” is a row of about 20 handwritten diaries that reveal the life of a woman during the ’70s and ’80s.
Jill, the owner and author of the journals, was an astrologer who seemingly wrote everything down, from mundane day-to-day life instances to personal relationship trials. Reading some of her entries reveals that she found wisdom in journaling, wisdom that could be passed down to a reader seeking guidance. A number of pages are dedicated to a woman she calls Ali, who she shared a loving partnership with for some time.
“Cards,” Jill wrote in a single entry in a journal that spanned October of 1980 to February of 1981. “The cards tell me I must let go of Ali, move on, I’ll not get what I want. There has been much energy, much work toward a dream relationship. It has been doubtful and oppressive at times. There is still some struggle in me, but I must be a woman alone.”
Much like the rest of the OLA collection, “Jill’s Journals” were acquired by donation. Beiser says that the journals were given to the archives by a friend of Jill’s after her passing. It’s personal items like the journals or pre-owned books with notes in the margins that give OLA the opportunity to allow the people who have been part of LGBTQ+ history to control their own narrative. Who keeps history is just as important as who writes it, Yerian says. And while heroes and idols throughout history are invaluable to that narrative, everyday LGBTQ+ individuals also deserve to be honored and normalized, she says.
In 1989, when OLA was established and found its first physical headquarters in Northside above the famed Crazy Ladies Bookstore, Beiser says community members lined Hamilton Avenue to help deliver personal collections to occupy the new location. At the time, archive affiliates like Beiser
lived in Northside and their personal collections were literally hand-passed down Hamilton Avenue, an act that began a decades-long archival initiative fueled by community donations and run by community individuals.
“On a Sunday morning, it was like, seven o’clock or something,” Beiser recalls. “There was a whole line of people, men and and women, whoever could help, we took boxes and they passed them down the street for blocks, and across to the new building.”
In the late ’80s – or “B.E.,” as Beiser jokingly calls it, referring to times before The Ellen DeGeneres Show – when support for LGBTQ+ individuals and movements was less accepted and oftentimes outright damned, community support was pivotal. Forming OLA was a movement in itself, one that was solidified and documented in its own archives as the beginning of accomplishing a mission to become a resource for LGBTQ+ individuals and a symbol of pride.
“A major reason Vic Ramstetter and I began the Archives was so we – lesbians, as well as GBT people – would never be invisible again,” Beiser tells CityBeat.
The effort continues today, as a recent donation came across Beiser’s desk in the form of a book, which was given to the archives by the author. Jen Jack Gieseking donated a copy of A Queer New York, which is a historical account of the geographies of “lesbians, dykes and queers,” according to the cover.
On the title page, a handwritten note from Gieseking reads: “For the OLA, its archivists and all who visit – So we can build our history together. Love, Jack.” A scribbled heart emphasizes the sincerity of Gieseking’s donation, which is just one of hundreds like it in the OLA collection.
Thirty years after it was founded, the archive continues to carry out its mission of preserving LGBTQ+ history and being a resource for the community. Since the move to its OTR location in October, the OLA has been able to display nearly the entirety of its collection and host events like book clubs and craft nights.
“When [Beiser] and [Ramstetter] and the other folks that they were working with started collecting things, it was because they couldn’t find these things anywhere else,” Yerian says. “They couldn’t find stories about being gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender, or queer. In the ’70s and ’80s if you went to the library to try to find books about lesbians, for example, first of all, you’d be redirected to ‘homosexual.’ And then there might be two books in the entire library. And when you went to the shelves to find them, they might be gone or stolen, who knows what. And as these [LGBTQ+] movements started to grow, they knew that no one was going to keep a record of their existence if they didn’t.”
While the reason for collecting has changed – the OLA is now building upon a decorated collection instead of accumulating materials in fear of being erased – the sentiment remains the same. What started as a grassroots movement is now a full-blown archival machine, with its content currently being digitally archived by the Cincinnati Public Library.
To learn more about the Ohio Lesbian Archives visit, ohiolesbianarchives.org. Visiting hours are Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. The OLA is located at 1308 Race St. in Over-the-Rhine.
Related Stories
Opinion: More In-Depth Reporting on LGBTQ+ Issues is Critical to Curbing Misinformation and Harmful Rhetoric
She’s On Fire 4U: Cincinnati Musician Bershy Encapsulates Queer Joy in Every Catchy Hook
Study: Cincinnati Ranks in Top 10 for Book-Loving Cities
Trump Administration Cuts $250k Grant to Install 10 LGBTQ+ Ohio Historical Markers
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 11, 2024.