The Archives' holdings of photographs began -- as did the Archives itself -- with material from The Body Politic.
In its eventual role as the unofficial newspaper of record for the Canadian gay movement, TBP had photo files swelling with shots of demonstrations, conferences, and social events. Prints of many photos appearing in the paper made their way to the Archives -- often along with negatives and contact sheets holding thousands of images never seen in print.
Later acquisitions from other sources broadened the scope. The second issue of the Archives' newsletter, in May 1978, noted a major donation of studies taken in 1984 of drag performers at Toronto's Club Manatee. In 1983, Lynnie Johnston donated more than 40 of her works, mounted for a display on police harassment -- including the infamous bath raids of February, 1981, and the massive demonstrations that followed.
The records of many other individuals and organizations also included photographic material. By 1991 there were more than 7,000 individual items: prints, negatives, slides, postcards, and halftone reproductions. But only a few had been catalogued.
That year the Archives sought and received a grant to finance work on its photographic material. Christopher Halonen, a graduate student at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Library and Information Sciences, produced An Inventory of Photographs Received in the Canadian Gay Archives Between 1973 and the End of 1987 (see Guides). It listed and indexed more than 4,500 images -- some dating back to the 1920s.
We want to expand the scope of our photo archives -- back into the decades before 1970, and deeper into the personal, domestic, and social lives of lesbians and gay men. If you have photos that can help preserve a wide and diverse visual heritage for the future, take a look at our page on Donating material to the Archives.