The LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library serves as an oral history resource center to aid in the preservation of queer history throughout Iowa. We have twenty-five lendable oral history kits to share with community members throughout the state who wish to do oral history interviews. We also offer training on how to conduct oral history interviews to support anyone in capturing our stories. If you’d like to get involved with our oral history work, contact us at lgbtqiowanarratives@gmail.com or at operations@lgbtqarchives.com!
LGBTQ Iowa Narratives
LGBTQ Iowa Narratives (LIN) is an archival repository for queer oral histories relating to the state of Iowa. We collect oral history donations and also produce oral history interviews in-house. LIN exists to support and bolster the power of community record keeping and the production of own-voices histories. As such, the LIN collection focuses on oral narrative materials relating to any and all LGBTQ people who are from, living, or have lived in the state of Iowa.
Copies of our collection development policy and our donor agreement form are available for viewing. If you’re interested in conducting an interview with LIN or in donating an interview you’ve produced yourself, contact us at lgbtqiowanarratives@gmail.com.
LIN is highly aware of the queer-hostile stance of our state government. We understand both the necessity of capturing the past and present and the necessity of protecting community members most strongly affected by anti-queer legislation. We aim to preserve all our materials both for current and future use. This means that, while public interviews are available for access to all, some interview materials are restricted by donor request. These materials must be requested personally by email or will be made available for access at a later time.
LIN is currently in its primary collections phase and is soliciting interviews; if you or someone you know has a history to share, contact us!
Access our finding aid with oral histories here!
LIAL also serves as a home and affiliate to two oral history projects in Iowa:
Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa
The Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa recognizes, collects, preserves, and celebrates the lives and stories of transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people across the state of Iowa, while simultaneously building a digital archive of transgender history. A primary goal of the project is to empower transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming community members to collect and preserve their own histories by training trans-identified people in the methodology of oral history.
The project also looks to the trans community in defining its content and the definition of its boundaries (participants, questions, etc.). Including transgender and gender non-conforming people as both storytellers and interviewers engages the entire community in history-making. It also disrupts possible forms of oppression and violence trans people encounter when telling their stories to community outsiders.
LGBT Oral Histories of Central Iowa
We are affiliated with the LGBT Oral Histories of Central Iowa project and will be housing a copy of their materials. LGBT Oral Histories of Central Iowa is a project made up of interviews gathered by students of Grinnell College. Our goal is to record the memories of people in our local community who identify as LGBT. We want to ensure that the valuable histories of LGBT Iowans are preserved and shared with future generations. We are affiliated with the LGBT Oral Histories of Central Iowa project and will be housing a copy of their materials.
