The New York Public Library

Press Release

 

ACT UP/NY Archives Donated to The New York Public Library

Allows for Preservation & Greater Access to Collections

New York, New York, March 11, 1996: The ACT UP/NY archives, covering the
years 1987 to 1995, have been given to The New York Public Library's Rare
Books and Manuscripts Division at the Center for the Humanities at Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street, Paul LeClerc, President of the Library, announced
today. ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is a national and
international nonpartisan activist group whose mission is to fight for "an
end to the AIDS crisis." Dr. LeClerc said, "The ACT UP/NY archives are an
important addition -- both to our extensive collections of AIDS-related
materials and to our wide-ranging storehouse of documentation of other
grass-roots movements in the United States."

Founded in New York City in March 1987, ACT UP is an all-volunteer
organization which has had chapters in all major U.S. cities as well as in
Paris, London, and Sydney. The archives given to the Library date from ACT
UP/NY's inception to the present and consist of documents generated by the
organization as well as the papers of individuals who made it their life's
work to further the cause of ACT UP/NY. "The New York Public Library is the
ideal recipient for the papers of ACT UP/NY because of its dedication to
collecting a broad record of the AIDS epidemic and because of its policy of
democratic access to its materials. The ACT UP/NY archives will be preserved
and made accessible to every researcher who comes to the Library," said
Stephen Shapiro of ACT UP.

Mimi Bowling, Curator of Manuscripts at the Library, said, "The Library has
become a valuable resource for researchers in AIDS history and information,
as we have been collecting AIDS-related materials for ten years. We already
have the papers of institutions such as Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the
People With AIDS Coalition, and Gran Fury, an artists' collective that
created many of ACT UP's memorable graphics. Several divisions of the
Library also work closely with The Estate Project of the Alliance for the
Arts, in an effort to save the works of writers and artists with AIDS." The
ACT UP/NY archives will be administered by the Rare Books and Manuscripts
Division at the Library, which already holds a substantial collection of
related papers of individuals who either are HIV positive or have died of
AIDS-related causes, including writers and artists such as Vito Russo, David
Feinberg, Harold Pickett, James Turcotte, Stuart Edelson, Arthur Johnson,
Aaron Cohen, and Copy Berg.

The ACT UP/NY archives cover the major demonstrations of civil disobedience
staged by the group in the 1980s, including the "actions" on the Food and
Drug Administration (1988), St. Patrick's Cathedral (1989), and the National
Institutes of Health (1990). The goals of ACT UP's direct actions include:
explicit prevention education (such as distribution of condoms and sex
education in the schools), information about and access to treatments for
AIDS, an end to discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, including the
loss of jobs and benefits, and an "emergency" effort to find a cure for the
disease.

Ms. Bowling said, "The ACT UP/NY records are unusual in that they represent
a conscious self-documentation process. At each weekly meeting of ACT UP,
photocopied literature is distributed on forthcoming actions and recent
developments in such areas as experimental drugs, AIDS and people of color,
reports on politicians, the National Institutes of Health, I.V. drug users,
ACT UP/NY media, and insurance. The compilation of these documents, along
with weekly files of media reports about ACT UP/NY, form the core of the
archives. The Library has already begun the organization, preservation, and
cataloging of the papers so that they can soon be used by researchers." The
ACT UP/NY papers will be stored in a secure and climate-controlled
environment to ensure their preservation.

The ACT UP/NY archives also include placards that were carried during
"actions," as well as other graphics and artifacts such as posters,
stickers, buttons, and even a lab coat painted with bloody handprints. These
items, too, are documents, ones that succinctly communicate ACT UP/NY's
major concerns and the group's rage, as well as the rich mix of graphic
creativity abounding in the community from which ACT UP sprang. Some of the
headlines memorialized by these graphics include the famous "Silence =
Death," and several powerful others: "AIDS: Where Is Your Rage?," "The CDC
Is a Dead End," "The Government Has Blood on Its Hands," and "One AIDS Death
Every Half Hour."

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Division
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Division houses one of the world's foremost
collections of rare book and manuscript materials, and is a vital and
growing part of the Library's important collections. Other material acquired
by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Division in recent months includes the
papers of novelist, literary critic, and memoirist, Doris Grumbach, and the
Emigrant Savings Bank Records, which chronicle the Irish immigration to the
U.S. during and after the Potato Famine. The ACT UP/NY materials continue
the Library's tradition of collecting the papers of groups dedicated to
civil rights issues, including the Schwimmer/Lloyd Collection, a vast
archive on women's rights, suffrage, peace movements, and world government;
the American Fund for Public Service Records (originally known as the
Garland Fund, which existed ca. 1920-1940 to support radical social and
political causes); the National American Woman Suffrage Association Records;
and the papers of Frank P. Walsh, a lawyer and supporter of civil rights and
labor causes and Irish independence. The Division's holdings also include
collections that relate to other epidemics, such as the John Shaw Billings
Papers, the Thomas K. Wharton Diaries, the Noah Webster Papers, and the
United States Sanitary Commission Records.

Information on AIDS Available in the Branch Libraries
The New York Public Library offers a wide variety of information resources
about HIV/AIDS. Every branch library has a special collection of New York
City community information that contains directories, newsletters, and
magazines listing local community services and programs directed toward the
HIV/AIDS community. Branches also distribute thousands of free pamphlets
from various organizations and government services. New books are constantly
being added to the circulating collections of the adult, young adult, and
children's rooms. Related books in languages other than English are also
acquired as appropriate to the specific community. Frequently requested
topics are nutrition, Chinese medicine, women, TB, safer sex practices,
children, and AIDS advocacy. With the introduction of the Library's new
online catalog, LEO (Library Entrance Online), users now have access to an
index to over 1500 periodicals, many of them in full-text form. Never before
have local branches been able to offer such a wealth of information from
popular magazines. The strong point of the Library has been its book and
periodicals collections, but videos, available in many branches, are also a
valuable source of HIV/AIDS information. The new online catalog will not
only tell you what titles the Library has, but also tell you in which
branches they are located and whether they are currently on the shelf.

Access to the Internet has initiated a whole new world of information
sources. HIV/AIDS service providers were quick to make these resources
available in this exciting electronic environment. At local branches, anyone
may use the Internet connection to check the HIV/AIDS resources developed by
NOAH (New York Online Access to Health), the AIDS Data Network, or the New
York Academy of Medicine.

The Branch Libraries, with funding from the National Library of Medicine and
other donors, has set up three projects: STAR (Staten Island AIDS
Resources); NORMA (Northern Manhattan AIDS Resources Project); and BEEHIVE
(Bronx HIV/AIDS Education Project). These projects are designed to give PWAs
(People With AIDS), their caregivers, and local community organizations the
best and latest HIV/AIDS information to help them make informed decisions.
These projects enable the Library to purchase additional copies of popular
books, pamphlets, and videos, broaden the scope of the collections, add
depth to the reference collections, provide a dedicated computer terminal to
access information available on the Internet, and provide the training
necessary to use the Internet effectively to locate the information. These
projects have enabled the Library to expand its collections and services for
a specific community for whose survival current information is vital.