Editors Note
Welcome to the eighth issue of Acid Free, a quarterly online publication of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective.
When a (sometimes) taboo theme, like sex, is explored in archives, reversals start to happen.
Distinctly defined personal collections maintained over a lifetime remain unnamed until uncovered by others. Historical society archives begin to have an alternate history only hinted at, inviting reinterpretation of a bygone tourist spot as an ideal location for secretive midday trysts. It can be a handy excuse for a community to turn a blind eye, creating an archives documenting an organization's willingness to care for those dying on the streets. It can also bring about the unexpected urge to self-censor in an online archival exhibit, and turn a harmless cover image into a possible phallic symbol. Textile collections show us they cannot hide from pest pheromones and the archivist's parallel issue of consent shows us this issue is present in some form in every collection. Our choice is when we are willing to see it.
Stories
The Most Porn I've Ever Seen
An intern at the Museum of Sex found that stewarding sexually explicit material can lead to unexpected emotional challenges.
Too Hard to Handle
Jon Naveh discusses two very different processing experiences with the Pat Rocco and Robert E. Mueller collections.
Creative Center for Photography
Lesser known subject matter hides in premier research collections of American photographic fine art.
Fight for the Living
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation's archivist, Hilary Clifford, traces the organization's beginnings in facing a deadly stigma.
AIDS Prevention Online Exhibit
An exhibit draws together archival materials about their response to AIDS by including oral history interviews of the record creators.
Archival Consent
UCLA MLIS student Julie Botnick considers power dynamics and consent in collection development.
Mountain Delights
Altadena Historical Society archives and suggestions of secretive trysts on snowy Los Angeles area mountains using railways that no longer exist.
OPUS Scandal
Speaking openly about sex to coeds on a sixties campus applies sexual innuendo to an innocuous image.
Accessible Amusement
An undergraduate's experience of discovery researching and arranging USC's Gladys A. Papers.
Mating Moths & Sex Jackets
LACMA Costumes and Textiles staff, Christina Frank and Jennifer Iacovelli, describe some sex-specific challenges that arise in textile archives.
Inventory of Undergarments
Hannah Gibson gives us a peek into the lithographs of artist June Wayne from LACMA's collection.
Missionary Position
Claudine Dixon explores the female gaze in LACMA's Hamilton Press Archive for Issue 8 of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective's Acid Free
Masthead
Editors
Caroline Bautista
Courtney Dean
Outreach
Jennie Freeburg
Alyssa Loera
Web Production
Grace Danico
Melissa Haley
Art Direction
Grace Danico
Acid Free Archive
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