South Carolina LGBTQ Archives

South Carolina LGBTQ Archives

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Part of the College of Charleston Special Collections, we collect oral histories and archival material about LGBTQ life.

Operating as usual

07/31/2024

All new content for the SC LGBTQ+ Collection is now being posted on Special Collections' Twitter and Instagram accounts.

This Facebook account will remain visible to all followers! For the most recent updates on the SC LGBTQ+ Collection, be sure to follow us at .

Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 09/22/2022

In 2013, the College Reads! committee chose "Fun Home," a memoir by Alison Bechdel about growing up as a closeted le***an and her complicated relationship with her father, as its annual read.

South Carolina lawmakers disapproved of the choice of book, saying that it was "promoting the gay and le***an lifestyle." As a result, the College
lost $52,000 of funding for the year, the same cost as the program.

In protest of the attempted censorship, the original cast of the Fun Home musical and the author performed two shows in an off-campus theater.

Special Collections has two copies signed by the author and original musical cast.

***an

Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/30/2022

125 Bull Street

The Avery Research Center has the papers of Joseph Towles & Colin Turnbull. Turnbull, an anthropologist, met Towles while working at the American Museum of Natural History. They exchanged wedding vows in 1960, living openly in an in*******al, gay relationship.


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/28/2022

66 George Street

Randolph Hall takes its name from Harrison Randolph (1871-1954), who, as President of the College from 1897-1942, oversaw the institution’s transition from a totally male school to one with women, the addition of Bachelor of Science degrees, a physical education department, and many other improvements, all the while maintaining a standard of academic excellence.

Randolph was a complicated man. Married, he carried on romantic and apparently physical relationships with men, but it is unlikely that he defined himself as gay, hiding or “closeting” this part of himself, even while leaving a documentary trail that leaves no doubt regarding these “trysts”, as he called his meetings with his “beloved” fellows.

Did he want these notes to survive? Other gay people of his generation did the same thing, hiding parts of their emotional and sexual selves while alive, but leaving behind diaries they wanted others to read, so we in the future could benefit by seeing the lives they led.


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/27/2022

Marion Square

Dedicated in 1999, the Holocaust memorial in Marion Square is perhaps the only one in the city of Charleston to pay tribute to gay people. It uses the word “homosexual” in its panel describing those selected for destruction by the N***s.

Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/23/2022

East Bay & Laurens Streets

John Laurens served alongside Alexander Hamilton under George Washington. Hamilton’s letters suggest a close relationship, writing "I wish, my dear Laurens, that it might be in my power, by action, rather than words, to convince you that I love you."


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/22/2022

56 Society Street

Dawn Langley Simmons, one of the first openly trans women in SC, lived here. Simmons married a Black man during segregation, sparking an international furor. She wrote 3 autobiographies, each with conflicting information about her fascinating life.


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/17/2022

38 Chalmers

Charleston Museum director Laura Bragg (1881 – 1978) lived in this house. In her salon, gay and straight people mixed. Bragg has been linked romantically with several women but the nature of their relationships remain open to debate.


***an

Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/09/2022

89 East Bay Street

Writer Harry Hervey lived in Charleston in the mid-1920s openly with his lover, Carleton Hildreth. Although he used coded language to cloak a ho******ic meaning and subtext, he was often more explicit than many other closeted writers of his day.


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 06/03/2022

150 Cannon Street

In 1978, drag queen Bryan Seabrook was the first African American to win the Miss Gay Charleston contest. As Africa, he performed in support of AIDS and other charities, and appeared on the cover of at least two magazines in southern-belle-like attire.


06/02/2022

2 Murray Blvd

This public garden, dating from antebellum times and displaying much of the history of the city, has reflected many changes in various eras. Before the Civil War, it was the province only of white residents. During Reconstruction, most of its visitors were Black Charlestonians.

When Jim Crow laws were enforced, African Americans could bring white children there, but often were not allowed on benches, except on various holidays. In the late 20th century, as civil rights issues were debated, the park and the battery sea wall became a congregating point for Black families on Sunday afternoons. It’s not known when gay men began using the battery for a cruising spot, but it functioned as such for a large part of the mid part of the 20th century.


06/01/2022

100 Meeting Street

Charleston-born architect Robert Mills (1781-1855) designed this structure in 1822 and it was constructed between 1822-26. Known as the Fireproof Building, it was the first such structure purposely built in the United States, designed to hold, and protect public records; in 1943 part of the building became the home of the South Carolina Historical Society (SCHS), founded in 1855. The society now occupies the entire building (with a museum open to the public) and is the state’s oldest and largest private repository of books, letters, journals, maps, drawings, and photographs. Dedicated to preserving all aspects of SC’s past, the archives, of course, includes several LGBTQ collections, documenting locals like Laura M. Bragg (see 38 Chalmers Street), visitors like Prentiss Taylor (see 17 Chalmers Street) and allies such as Josephine Pinckney (see 36 Chalmers Street). Other collections include the Anne King Gregorie papers.

Born in Savannah, GA, Gregorie (1887-1960) was the first woman to receive a doctorate in history from the University of South Carolina. She and her long-term partner feminist Flora Belle Surles (1887-1971) lived and worked together, helping to save the state’s history, while adding their own to the story.

The archives are rich with documents reflective of the intimate lives of past and current Carolinians. There are letters describing Ned Jennings (see 62 Broad Street), copies of early Charleston gay newsletters, and much more.

An 1861 letter in Allston Family Papers, for instance, dramatizes past fears and attitudes to what was considered improper behavior. In a letter to his younger brother Charles in boarding school in McCormack, SC. Benjamin Allston wrote:
“Where is your own bed? Have you not one? I would ask Mr. Porcher to allow you to use your own mattress, even if you have to put it upon the floor.” Benjamin warned, “If you cannot affect this, well you must submit, but be very careful Charley, boys in sleeping together sometimes teach each other very bad habits….” Benjamin warned of insanity “from the practice of habits learnt in boyhood.”


05/26/2022

The Gay Liberator was an underground newspaper published in Detroit by Pansy Press, an independent gay media collective. The publication ran from 1970 until 1976. It published news articles (national and international) from within the gay and le***an community.


Photos from South Carolina LGBTQ Archives's post 02/15/2022

The following is adapted from The Real Rainbow Row, a self-guided walking tour of Charleston’s LGBTQ history:

125 Bull Street: Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture: Joseph Towles (1937-1988), Colin Turnbull (1924-1994)

Built as a school to educate recently freed enslaved people, the building now houses the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. One of its most important collections is the one named for Joseph Towles (1937-1988), but which also contains the papers of his partner Colin Turnbull (1924- 1994). Turnbull, a British anthropologist famous for his work in Africa, met Towles when the latter volunteered to work with him at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. They exchanged wedding vows in 1960 and often turned heads, not just because of their difference in ages and background (Towles had come to NYC to act and model), but because Towles was Black. Towles studied anthropology and the couple worked together for years, both eventually dying of AIDS.

Among the materials at Avery is Turnbull’s unpublished story of their relationship, “Lover and Beloved”, a rare artifact indeed, since many local gay men and women had to hide their relationships and had materials documenting their lives destroyed by families or turned down by archives. Towles and Turnbull are buried side by side in Towles’ native Virginia.

Images courtesy of the Avery Research Center and Lowcountry Digital Library.


10/08/2021

October is LGBTQ History month, and the S.C. LGTBQ Oral History, Archives, and Outreach project has some exciting news share.

For the first time since the Real Rainbow Row launched in 2014, two new sites have been added to the website and self-guided walking tour!

More than 100 LGBTQ sites have been identified, so stay tuned!

Here are 150 Cannon Street and 100 Meeting Street.

Visit the Real Rainbow Row, links is below, to learn more about these sites and why they are important to the LGBTQ history in Charleston.

And with scores more to share, keep checking our social media accounts as we celebrate LGBTQ History month.

Link to 150 Cannon Street: https://speccoll.cofc.edu/the-real-rainbow-row/150-cannon-street/

Link to 100 Meeting Street: https://speccoll.cofc.edu/the-real-rainbow-row/100-meeting-street/

07/03/2021

The S.C. LGBTQ: Oral Histories, Archives, and Outreach project wants to wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend and we hope that everyone has a gay old time no matter where you are.

Also, did you catch the geographical mistake with this postcard?

Happy Fourth of July!

06/30/2021

Prentiss Taylor (1907 – 1991) was an out and proud gay artist most associated with Washington, DC, but who had many links to the city of Charleston. Born in Washington D.C., he studied lithography at the Art Students League in New York City and first came to town at the invitation of novelist Josephine Pinckney, whom he met at the MacDowell artists' colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He spent the summer of 1933 in the Pink House on Chalmers Street, one of the oldest buildings in town and came back over the years to visit John Zeigler and Edwin Peacock, owners of the Book Basement, located at 9 College Way on the CofC campus. Taylor created the artwork for Josephine Pinckney’s novel Great Mischief, designed a post card for the Book Basement, and collaborated with Langston Hughes, creating works for civil rights and social justice. To learn more about Prentiss Taylor, visit the Real Rainbow Row website, see link below. You can view some of his work that was featured in the book, The Lithographs of Prentiss Taylor: A Catalogue Raisonne, by visiting The Lowcountry Digital Library, link below. A collection of correspondence between Taylor and Pinckney is in the archives of The South Carolina Historical Society along with a small collection of correspondence between Taylor and Helen G. McCormack. Link to the catalog record can be found in our bio. Items relating to Taylor can also be found in the collections of the S.C. LGBTQ: Oral Histories, Archives, and Outreach project.

03/25/2021

Please visit the link below to contribute.

Thanks for your stimulating support!

Image features Miss Africa performing at Mardi Gras, Les Jardins, ca. 1980s.

Link: https://give.cofc.edu/Lowcountry-LGBTQ

03/16/2021

Laura Bragg (1881 – 1978) was a progressive leader who changed Charleston, SC.

Born in Massachusetts, she came here in 1909 to serve as curator of books and public instruction at the Charleston Museum, then located on the third floor of the College of Charleston’s Randolph Hall. In 1920, on being named director, she became the first woman in the country to head a publicly supported museum. She also helped found the Poetry Society of South Carolina, launching the Charleston Renaissance and changing the cultural face of the city. Miss Bragg, as she was called, opened the minds of children and adults through her educational efforts and through her establishing of the Public Library.

She also opened up segregated institutions to Blacks in the Jim Crow era, and mentored writers, artists, scientists and others to become local, regional, and international leaders in their fields. Never marrying, she was linked romantically to several women, including Isabel “Belle” Heyward, and befriend many LGBTQ people, including Edward I. R. Jennings, Edwin Peacock, and John Zeigler.

She helped craft 20th century Charleston, is memorialized on Special Collection’s Real Rainbow Row website and her papers are open for research at the South Carolina Historical Society.

Image found in the John A. Zeigler, Jr., papers part of the SC LGBTQ: Oral Histories, Archives, and Outreach project located in Special Collections at the College of Charleston.

Link to the John A. Zeigler, Jr., papers:
http://findingaids.library.cofc.edu/repositories/2/resources/60

Link to the Real Rainbow Row: 38 Chalmers Street:
https://speccoll.cofc.edu/the-real-rainbow-row/38-chalmers-street/

Link for information on the Laura M. Bragg papers at the South Carolina Historical Society:
https://schistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bragg-Laura-1009.00.pdf

03/11/2021

In honor of women’s history month we start with honoring two women who impacted a generation of Charleston children and the city’s theatrical scene.

Life partners Dorothy (Dottie) D'Anna and Carol (Kit) Carr Lyons were co-founders and co-directors of the Little Theatre School at the Dock Street Theatre. Lyons, born in Providence, Rhode Island, majored in theater at the University of Maine, and taught theater in Buffalo and East Aurora, New York. D'Anna, of Buffalo, studied theater in New York City and in her hometown, also working at the East Aurora Playhouse and the Grand Island Playhouse. In 1958, she became Associate Director of the Footlight Players in Charleston, artistic director in 1988 and taught at the College of Charleston. Dottie and Kit, as they were affectionally called, schooled many youngsters in the art of acting, and their productions for children charmed and entertained thousands more. There are professionals working in the field today who owe it all to Kit and Dottie.

02/24/2021

In 1987, in a program narrated by Ted Stern, former President of the College of Charleston, two gay African American pianists were adopted as “True Sons of the City.”

Wilfred Delphin and Edwin Romain began their partnership in New Orleans in the late 1960s while attending Xavier University. After graduating they went on to earn their master’s degrees and doctorates together. They made their professional debuts as soloists in 1977 with the Symphony of the New World in New York’s Carnegie Hall. The couple performed with some of the finest orchestras around the country and abroad. They moved to Charleston and were named artists-in-residence at the College of Charleston in 1979. Although the two men lived, worked, travelled, and performed together, the nature of their relationship, while known to many, was not discussed publicly. Coming out as gay in the 1970s and ‘80s could likely have cost them their careers.

The couple moved from Charleston and Edwin Romain died of AIDS-related causes in 1995, while Wilfred Delphin continued teaching and standing up for minority representation in musical education, scholarships, and performance. We honor these outstanding “Sons of the City” in celebration of Black History Month.

02/14/2021

We love what we do, and we can’t do it without you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

William van Hettinga, who marketed this valentine, was an out and proud gay artist in Charleston, who published Poor William’s Omnibus, an arts and entertainment paper with an definite q***r slant. We lost William to AIDS in 1989, but we’re keeping his memory and his works alive through our SC LGBTQ Oral Histories, Archives and Outreach Project. Thank you for all the love, stories, memories and support you’ve shared with us.

01/28/2021

Here’s our image for CofC day – when you can show your support for LGBTQ history!

Before we started recording people’s stories, collecting materials (back to the 1850s!) and impacting the campus, our community had little visibility.

One of the rare exceptions to gain international attention was Dawn Langley Simmons, whose transitioning and marriage (said to be the first in*******al one in the state) grabbed global headlines. While the wedding was famous, no image of the ceremony was known – till now, revealed here. It’s a recent acquisition to our collection, along with some correspondence, papers, and even a brief video interview.

There are so many other stories, just as important, that need to be documented before they disappear. We alone are committed to this and we need your help. A donation to the SC LGBTQ Oral Histories, Archives and Outreach Project is a gift not just to the past of our community, but its future too.

There’s information via the link below. Thank you!

https://cofcday.cofc.edu/organizations/college-of-charleston-libraries

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205 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC
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