The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is an online resource based at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, in collaboration with more than sixty international colleges,

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s, and private collections. It was established to enable researchers to locate and make use of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

-related materials in digital and physical collections. It serves as a finding aid for archival materials and an online hub for born-digital materials and digitized historical materials. According to the archive's website: "In order to address these significant barriers to the accessibility of trans history, the DTA virtually merges disparate archival collections, digital materials, and independent projects with a single search engine. With rich primary source materials and powerful search tools, the DTA offers a generative point of entry into the fascinating and expansive world of trans history."

Purpose

The DTA co-locates and provides direct access or links to materials from numerous institutions including (but not limited to)

Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives, formerly known as the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1973 as the Canadian Gay Liberation Movement Archives. The ArQuives acquires, preserves, and pro ...

GLBT Historical Society The GLBT Historical Society (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society) (formerly Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California; San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Historical Society) maintains an extensive collection ...

Leather Archives and Museum The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is "making leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish acce ...

Transgender Oral History Project The Transgender Oral History Project is an initiative by and for the transgender community. TOHP collects interviews and produces multimedia content featuring stories of transgender-identified people, and exists to empower trans folks through sharin ...

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

, and

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries is the oldest existing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization in the United States and one of the largest repositories of LGBT materials ...

in order to assist researchers in overcoming several challenges in conducting research into transgender history. Materials documenting transgender history are widely dispersed, and the level of description and access for materials varies widely. The creation of this resource makes available materials that were previously unavailable online or very difficult to find in archival collections. Because the term ''transgender'' is relatively new, materials processed in archives prior to the 1990s may not contain the now widely accepted descriptive term, so this digital repository seeks to bridge that gap. The DTA contains over 8,500 items, including newsletters, periodicals, photographs, and zines, and—according to one of the originators of the project—"anything related to 'trans-ing gender.'" By digitally merging materials from multiple institutions world-wide, access is greatly increased.

Awards

Associate Professor K.J. Rawson, Project Director of the DTA, received a Digital Innovation Fellowship and subsequent $150,000 Digital Extension Grant from the

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

for work on the DTA. In 2017, the digital repository received the C.F.W. Coker Award from the

Society of American Archivists The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the organi ...

, which honors "finding aids, finding aid systems, innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce more effective finding aids".

References

External links

Digital Transgender Archive
{{authority control College of the Holy Cross Transgender organizations in the United States Archives in the United States LGBT museums and archives Northeastern University

Purpose

Awards

See also

References

External links