The Archives

Use the menu at left to view quick guides to the major archival collections. 

To schedule an appointment or request information about specific holdings, email archives@waygay.org.

When Two Archives Became One

The present Archives was formed through the merger of two collections in 1992: the Community Center Library's archival holdings and the holdings of the Gay/Lesbian Archives of Philadelphia.

The Gay/Lesbian Archives of Philadelphia was a project of activist, author and performer Tommi Avicolli (now Tommi Avicolli Mecca), who for many years was the editor of the Philadelphia Gay News and host of WXPN-FM's Gaydreams.  In the 1970s and 1980s, Tommi gathered organizational and personal papers, newspaper and magazine clippings, photos, and other materials documenting the history of GLBT people in the Delaware Valley.  As the collection grew, it took over large portions of his Center City home and his newspaper office.  Besides granting researchers access to these collections, he organized many of the materials into a slide show called "Rocking the Cradle," about the history of local gay political organizing.  He presented the show at schools and community events throughout the 1980s.

Tommi donated the Gay/Lesbian Archives to the community center when he moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s.  The magazines and newspapers were inventoried and incorporated into our main Periodicals Collection.  Organizational newsletters and most similar materials were inventoried and merged into the main Newsletters and General Ephemera Collection.

His slide show and the materials he collected as a journalist have been kept together as Special Collection #0011: The Tommi Avicolli Mecca Slide Show and Audio Tapes.  A guide to that collection will be online shortly.

Organizational and personal collections that were donated to him in his capacity as an archivist are treated as separate collections, although their source is always noted in the collection guides.  Two of his Gay/Lesbian Archives collections are fully processed and integrated into the Library/Archives: The Gay Alternative / Jeffrey Escoffier Papers (now our Special Collection #0009) and The Gay Media Project Papers (now our Special Collection #0010).  Former Gay/Lesbian Archives collections still in processing include The East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) Papers and The Gay Activists Alliance Philadelphia Papers, as well as numerous clipping files and several collections of local activists' personal papers.

PHOTO:  Marchers lead Philadelphia's 1973 Gay Pride Parade.  From a black-and-white print in Special Collection #0010: The Gay Alternative / Jeffrey Escoffier Papers.  Image © Harry R. Eberlin, used by permission.

PHOTO:  Title screen from the "Rocking the Cradle" slide show, from a 35mm slide in Special Collection #0011: The Tommi Avicolli Mecca Slide Show and Audio Tapes.