Revealing a Community\u27s Heritage: the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America

The Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA) was founded in 2009 to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documents and artifacts that reflect the histories of the LGBTQ communities in the Kansas City region. Originally a partnership between the University of Missouri – Kansas City Special Collections and Archives Division, the Kansas City Museum, and the Jackson County Historical Society, by 2014 two of the partners retreated from the project and it has been solely an initiative at UMKC since. GLAMA has been wildly successful in many respects – response from community donors; interest on the part of student, faculty, and community researchers; and uncovering a previously hidden history of the region. This presentation will focus on the evolution of GLAMA, resources available to users, and public-facing projects that have emerged from the collections