Commemorating Historically Significant Gay Places Across the United States

The stories of gay spaces across the United States are largely unrecorded, undocumented, and are not centrally collected or archived beyond informal reports and oral histories. Evidence demonstrates that the preservation of historic sites allows for future generations to benefit from intangibles related to community and identity. However, the LGBTQ+ community has been unable to gain benefits that place-based, historic sites can provide, due to an inability to commemorate spaces that have shaped LGBTQ+ history in significant ways. This chapter explores the disparities between the preservation and commemoration of significant LGBTQ+ spaces and the amount of funding distributed to these sites. As of 2016, LGBTQ+ sites comprised only 0.08 percent of the 2,500 U.S. National Historic Landmarks and 0.005 percent of the more than 90,000 places listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This representation is well short of the share of American adults that identify as LGBTQ+ , which in 2017 was approximately five percent of the United States population. In 2010 the Administration of President Barack Obama launched the LGBTQ Heritage Initiative under the National Historic Landmarks Program. This effort underscored a broader commitment to include historically underrepresented groups, including LGBTQ+ individuals. As a result, LGBTQ+ communities became eligible to receive funding for projects through the Underrepresented Community Grant Program. An analysis of the distribution of Underrepresented Community Grant Program funds revealed that the LGBTQ+ community receives considerably less funding compared to other underrepresented communities. The findings from this study suggest that there is still a significant amount of work that remains to be done to integrate LGBTQ+ histories into historic preservation programs that exist at various levels of programming (local, state, and federal).

A Reconstructed Past Lives in the Present

Distillers seek to retain or revive their industry’s history through narratives claiming authenticity for proclaimed traditions that are accepted as their heritage endowment. Heritage, if it is explained and publicized, can be deployed as a marketing tool and an attraction to potential customers and tourists. Kentucky’s distilling industry is notable for how it engages its past. Distillers preserve their heritage by retaining and reclaiming important structures or rebuilding them as replicas and by saving them through historic preservation. Twelve distilleries, five distillers’ homes, an aging warehouse, a bottling plant, and other structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three distilleries have been designated National Historic Landmarks. Some distillers actively pursue their heritage, including signage and archaeological recovery of structures and artifacts.

The Louisiana State Museum Music Collection Oral Histories: Digitization, Preservation, and Use

The Louisiana State Museum, a statewide network of National Historic Landmarks, architecturally significant structures, and half a million artifacts, has a robust collection of oral histories with New Orleans jazz originators, revival figures, and other New Orleans and Louisiana musicians. This collection of oral histories consists of more than 300 interviews in the following formats: reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, digital audiotape, videotape, CD and DVD, and assorted digital file formats, such as WAV, MP3, and MP4. This article examines the range of the Music Collection, explains its value, and makes the case for digitization and preservation. Finally, the article provides examples of use in on-site exhibitions as well as online dissemination through the New Orleans Jazz Museum.