Future generations who want to know about transgender pioneers owe a debt to Ms. Bob Davis, whose work in archiving this community is the result of her “being a compulsive collector. I’ve been saving stuff since 1979.”
A former professor of music and sound design at the University of California, Davis is the founder and director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive in Vallejo, California. For almost 50 years, she has been collecting trans historical artifacts, including books, magazines, paintings, newsletters, posters, photographs, phonograph records, and interviews. The organization’s name also holds legacy; Louise Lawrence was a trailblazer who aided researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey in his research on sexuality and spent her life working to serve both trans people and crossdressers.
Davis also helped lobby for the Transgender Archive at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, to accept the vast archive of the International Foundation for Gender Education. It’s considered the world’s largest repository of archival materials pertaining to transgender and gender-nonconforming people.
San Francisco Pride honored Davis in June by naming her one of the grand marshals of its annual Pride Parade.
“The history of marginalized communities is elusive, imperiled, and best preserved by the communities themselves,” Davis says. @lltransarchive
