Lesbian history everywhere is consistently erased, and the Bay Area is no exception. Many of the materials we collect are difficult to locate or do not exist within university holdings, other archives, or the internet. Our goal in digitizing BALA's collection is to make accessible to everybody the materials saved by Bay Area lesbian communities that represent their lives, work, loves, dreams, activism, creativity and art. We believe this information is essential to help build a world that all humans want to live in.

 

BALA has collected many thousands of items that were created before and during the digital age: photographs, flyers, posters, journals, greeting cards, brochures, t-shirts. Since the summer of 2021, with the help of our volunteers, we have been inventorying and scanning the materials in our storage. Inside these boxes is a treasure trove of materials created by lesbians of many decades who, like those today, were discovering their authentic selves and living their lives boldly. We have been committed since our inception in representing the wide diversity of lesbians who have lived in the Bay Area. Please view our online gallery to see a sampling of the materials we have scanned so far, and know that we are working to make many more images available for the future.