NEH Grant to Digitize Historical Materials on HIV/AIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area

In recognition of World AIDS Day, we want to highlight a digitization project recently funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant supports the scanning of paper archives that document the experiences of people with AIDS, and the medical, political, and community responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the San Francisco bay area. San Francisco Public Library, UCSF Archives and Special Collections, and the GLBT Historical Society will provide the primary source material from their extensive HIV/AIDS-related collections.

Article in Scrapbook 1
(San Francisco General Hospital AIDS Ward 5B/5A Archives)

The library's archival material is drawn from the San Francisco History Center and from the Hormel LGBTQIA Center. A few of the collections that will be scanned, in whole or in part, are: the Deaf AIDS Center Collection, the Vincent diaries, Gary Fisher's journals, and the San Francisco General Hospital AIDS Ward 5B/5A Archives. Portions of these collections will be unavailable during the scanning process.

San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Day Parade and Celebration, 1988
(San Francisco General Hospital AIDS Ward 5B/5A Archives)

The project is currently underway and will continue for another year and half. UCSF Archives and Special Collections just posted some additional information on the project with examples from their own collections. Once completed the digitized material will be available through Calisphere, a part of the California Digital Library. The San Francisco Public Library is excited to increase the visibility of these materials and to make them accessible to a wider audience.