Seattle Gay News turns 50 years old this year. To celebrate, the Seattle Public Library is hosting an exhibit that covers the paper's origins, milestones, and current status today.

My partner and I attended the exhibit this week. It was a good excuse to go to the Central Library, which is a gorgeous building. Great natural lighting, spiraling floor designs, interesting materials.

The exhibit itself was well worth our time.

Tucked away on the 8th floor, the exhibit details the paper's origins as a newsletter for Seattle's Gay Community Center in Pioneer Square, all the way back in 1974. From there, it would eventually grow into the newspaper we know today.

It was decently-sized exhibit. As much as I would like to detail it in its entirety, I'll stick with what stuck out.

the highlights

There was a selection of personal ads from various decades. Dating before the internet. I failed to take a picture of the display, but it was a humorous look at how certain things about gay culture have not changed. It is touching to see public vulnerability in this form.

During the AIDS crisis, Seattle Gay News began publishing obituaries. Several pages were on display.

Several print-outs of The Poodleer, a campy parody of high school newspapers, were on display. During the 80's and 90's, the newspaper would host an annual prom-themed event, and The Poodleer, "the mouth-organ of Lavender Valley High School," was how it was promoted. A charming idea, given that I imagine traditional proms had little to offer to gay people of that generation.

archiving and preserving

One of the displays included an explanation on how the University of Washington was able to digitize 50 years worth of physical newspapers through the use of microfilm.

Matt Nagle at Seattle Gay News detailed what prompted the exhibit.

After the sudden death of SGN publisher and owner George Bakan on June 7, 2020, then-SPL Executive Director Marcellus Turner read a story online about efforts germinating to archive the paper. The story featured a concerning photo that propelled Turner to contact the University of Washington Libraries.

UW Libraries News Librarian Jessica Albano, who created the exhibit, recalled this moment that sparked what would become a years-long project to archive all five decades of the SGN.

"The story showed piles and piles of SGNs stacked outside, under George's carport," she said, "and how they were trying to collect it, preserve it, and distribute it to libraries," thus rescuing the stacks from ruin or discard.

All the newspapers from Bakan's storage units were gathered and delivered to the team's meeting space for volunteers from the community and the library to sort for eventual distribution to archives across the country, so that multiple institutions would keep a print run of the collection.

The digital archive is available through the Washington State Library's website.

nothing lasts forever

We live in a time where we have unprecedented access to historical media. There are a lot of dedicated people and organizations out there preserving history and putting it on display for the public.

It probably won't last forever. Lawsuits are threatening the Internet Archive.. Various online news sources have been completely wiped out.

History only lives if it's kept alive. Maybe somebody who loves you will donate your collection to the local library once you're dead.

The exhibit runs until August 25th. If you are in the Seattle area, I recommend stopping by the Central Library.

a link

The People's Graphic Design Archive, a crowd-sourced virtual archive of graphic design that I only recently found out about.