The Stonewall National Museum and Archives continues to grow three years after moving into its expanded space on East Sunrise Boulevard. While many libraries and bookstores are closing their doors to focus on virtual, online ones, Stonewall continues to add exhibits and documents.
According to a story in the Sun Sentinal, a tennis racket signed by Martina Navratilova is within yards of news clippings of former beauty queen and gay rights opponent Anita Bryant. The gavel that hammered the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy against gays and lesbians last year as also made an appearance, thanks to U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass.
“It’s a good sign. It’s a sign of the vibrance of this movement,” said Frank, who visits Fort Lauderdale twice a year with his partner and recently loaned the gavel. “This is a very important cause to document.”
With 25,000 books and videos, Stonewall is the largest circulating library of gay literature and periodicals and one of at least a handful nationally. It changed its name last year, from the Stonewall Library & Archives, to reflect a more national focus with its collection and traveling exhibitions. The organization’s advertising boasts that it’s “the LGBT community’s Smithsonian.”
“We are this national treasure of stuff and we needed to have a name that reflects that,” Bryan Knicely president of the nonprofit Stonewall, told the Sun Sentinal. The museum has about 7,000 items in its archives, representing 8,000 linear feet or about 1 1/2 miles of materials.
But the center also houses slices of old gay South Florida, including the outdoor sign of the former Marlin Beach Hotel, a popular beach spot for Fort Lauderdale gays That sign bedecks the entrance of the library’s conference room. The hotel’s original blueprints are also part of the archive. Also on hand are sports jerseys from out athletes and music videos that played at popular Florida nightclubs in the 1970s.
“If someone doesn’t collect or preserve this, it’s one of those things that gets thrown away,” Knicely said. “When you are part of a community like the LGBT community, unless you know what has happened before you and what rights you have been fighting for, you really have no sense of place in your community. So that’s why it’s important to preserve this so the story can always be told.”
