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.

Archives: David Lourea and the Bisexual Center



The Bay Area Bisexual Network (BABN) was founded in 1987 and is celebrating its 25th anniversary. So it seems a fitting time to highlight the David Lourea Papers which contains documentation of the bisexual community in San Francisco.



David Nachman Lourea (1945-1992) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised an orthodox Jew. He received a B.F.A. from Temple University in 1967 and moved with his family to San Francisco in 1973. He was active with San Francisco Sex Information, was one of the early members of the San Francisco Bisexual Center and was one of the founders of Bisexual Counseling Services. He earned a Ph.D from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and served on the board of Congregation Ahavat Shalom. He died in San Francisco in 1992 from kidney failure associated with AIDS.

The Lourea Papers contains correspondence, articles, magazines, newspaper clippings, newsletters, and other ephemera on bisexuality and on the San Francisco Bisexual Center.

 

The San Francisco Bisexual Center was founded in August 1976 by Maggi Rubinstein and Harriet Leve. The purpose was to "serve as a positive support base to facilitate communication, to teach each other by sharing...learning, and to explore the essence and potential of loving" for bisexuals. At its first meeting 22 attendees established a steering committee. By early 1977 the Bi Center sponsored about 15 events per month from rap groups to barbecues to dances. Its membership was about 140. The center held a press conference in June 1977 to speak out against Anita Bryant and Proposition 6 (aka the Briggs Initiative). As a result of the media exposure, membership rose to 435. Lourea was one of the early members and was an early co-director. The Bi Center closed in 1985.

The Lourea Papers also contains material on other organizations that provided information to San Francisco residents: San Francisco Sex Information hotline, BiPol, a political action group formed in the late 1970s, and the Bay Area Bisexual Network. Lourea was keenly interested in the subject of education in the areas of sexuality and sexual activity within the gay and bisexual communities. Several files contain pamphlets, flyers, and drafts for the same, for the promotion of safe sex during the early years of the AIDS crisis. The collection also includes statistics on AIDS cases in San Francisco.

The David Lourea Papers (GLC 55) are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. The photographs are available during the hours for the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Archives: AIDS @ 30--Part 1 Caregivers



Photo (c) Sibylla Herbrich (GLC 53 Annemarie Madison Papers)



The AIDS crisis has been part of our lives for 30 years. It often takes decades to comprehend fully the impact of such a crisis, both as it affects our daily lives and in terms of the longstanding cultural and political effects. Our understanding is based on a combination of personal experience, reflection, and research on how the politics and social concerns of the day addressed (or failed to address) the urgent needs of a community that seemed to increase in size daily.



There are several archival collections in the Hormel Center and in the San Francisco History Center that lend perspective to this important chapter in San Francisco and world history. In this blog post, we'll highlight some of the collections that focus on AIDS caregivers;  later posts will focus on collections about People with AIDS and on government records.


GLC 53 Madison Papers

CAREGIVERS



The Annemarie Madison Papers, the San Francisco General Hospital Ward 5B/5A Records, and Regional Oral History Office's interview transcripts are important sources for examining the AIDS crisis through the eyes of its caregivers.

The Annemarie Madison Papers record the many lives touched by Madison in her work as an AIDS volunteer. When the AIDS epidemic began, Madison asked the Public Health director of San Francisco how she could help. He referred her to Shanti and Coming Home Hospice, where she applied to be a volunteer and was accepted by Coming Home. Gradually, more and more of her patients came as referrals through friends, rather than through hospice. Madison guided these men through the dying process, helping them to pass on with dignity and love.



She maintained files on each person, keeping notes on their cases and their needs, photos, and correspondence with them and their families. The photos often include images of these men before they became ill, and they occasionally include images of them during their hospitalization. Most files contain obituary notices or memorial service programs.

What is clear throughout the Madison collection is her respect for each person, her compassion, and her regret for each life taken too soon. The Madison Papers also contain a small amount of AIDS education materials for hospice volunteers; and audiovisual materials, including interviews with Madison, television news programs with AIDS "progress" reports, and songs produced to raise awareness.



Photo (c) Sibylla Herbrich (GLC 53 Madison Papers)

Madison and her work was profiled in several newspaper and magazine articles. In 1995, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany awarded Madison the Order of Merit, First Class, of the Federal Republic of Germany for her work in the AIDS crisis. In 1996, the Kuratorium for Immune Deficiency (Munich) created the Annemarie Madison Award to honor those who contribute to improving care for AIDS.



Another extraordinary resource is the San Francisco General Hospital AIDS Ward 5B/5A Records. San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 5B, the first dedicated AIDS hospital ward in the United States, opened with 12 beds on July 25, 1983 and included both AIDS and hospice patients. Cliff Morrison, a former Clinical Nurse Specialist in psychiatry, was the first nurse manager. Capacity quickly proved to be inadequate, so on Jan. 17, 1986, the ward was moved to the 20-bed Ward 5A.

In the mid-1990s, with the availability of new drugs called protease inhibitors, the number of AIDS patients decreased sufficiently that the ward began admitting non-AIDS-related oncology patients. With its interdisciplinary approach, Ward 5B/5A set a new standard in AIDS-related medical care.



GLC 53 Annemarie Madison Papers

The AIDS Ward collection contains scrapbooks, communication books, head nurses' files, correspondence, videotapes, publications, and memorabilia collected by the nursing staff of AIDS Ward 5B/5A. The collection documents daily life on the ward among patients, their families and friends, nurses, and volunteers. Of note are the photos of public events and celebrations, minutes of nursing staff meetings, and copies of the "Best Hospitals" issues of US News and World Report, 1991-1997. The collection also reflects the changing role of nursing, as 5B/5A nurses were critical to the development of the multidisciplinary model of AIDS care that came to be known as the "San Francisco model."



GLC 53 Annemarie Madison Papers

In addition to these two archival collections, the San Francisco History Center has transcripts of oral histories conducted by the Regional Oral History Office at the University of California, Berkeley. The subject is AIDS in San Francisco during the years 1981-1984. You can find the transcripts of these interviews listed in the library's online catalog. These include doctors' and nurses' views, as well as those of AIDS health educators. 

All of the materials listed above are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library. The photographs are available during the hours for the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.