Guide to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) research resources
Poster for 'Twilight shift'
by Jackie Kay, from the
7:84 Scotland archive at NLS.
by Jackie Kay, from the
7:84 Scotland archive at NLS.
This guide gives an overview of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) material available in the National Library of Scotland's collections and elsewhere.
Our list is not comprehensive, and if you know of other collections or resources that researchers could find useful we would be interested to hear about them. Please email the details to manuscripts@nls.uk.
National Library of Scotland
Research resources include:
- Archives relating to LGBT activism, including the papers of:
- Ian Dunn [Acc.11905 (PDF) (10 pages; 76 KB)]
- Bob Orr [Acc.12766 (PDF) (8 pages; 100 KB )]
- Literary and personal papers of Scottish writers including:
- Edwin Morgan [MSS.27493-27494, Acc. 8848 and Acc. 12948]
- Chris Whyte [Acc.11654 (PDF) (3 pages; 80 KB), Acc.12673 and Acc. 13271]
- Florence Russell [Acc.10639 (PDF) (3 pages; 36 KB)]
- Norman Douglas [Acc.11365 (PDF) (5 pages; 68 KB)]
- Fred Urquhart [MSS.26992-26997 and Acc.13052]
- John Gray and Marc-André Raffalovich (the Gray and Raffalovich papers) [Dep.372 (PDF) (4 pages; 73 KB)]
- Other collections that may be of interest:
- Robert Boothby papers [Acc. 12929]
- The volume of letters of Lord Alfred Douglas [MS.9925]
- Archives of the Traverse and 7:84 Scotland theatre companies, which have consistently addressed LGBT issues in their productions
- Records of the Scottish Council on Civil Liberties and the Scottish Human Rights Centre [Acc. 12971 and 12972]
- Papers of consultant in psychological medicine William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn [Acc. 11258/95, 99 (xvi), 120 and 144]
- 'OurStory Scotland' collection at NLS Scottish Screen Archive — video recordings and films.
Modern printed books and periodicals
We aim to collect all Scottish, most UK, and much significant non-UK published material of LGBT interest, all accessible through the main catalogue:
- Works by LGBT novelists, poets, and dramatists
- Works by and about LGBT figures of all periods
- Academic and popular works on LGBT themes
- Periodicals such as 'Gay Scotland', 'Pulse', 'Pride Scotland News', 'GM8', 'Scots Scene' and many others.
Other sources
- National Records of Scotland:
- Records of LGBT organisations such as Outright Scotland
- Lesbian Archive and Information Centre (LAIC) at Glasgow Women's Library
- OurStory Scotland Collection in the Scottish Life Archive at National Museums Scotland — oral history recordings and written testimonies collected by OurStory Scotland
- 'Rainbow City' at the People's Story Museum, Edinburgh — principally collected 2004-2006 by the 'Remember When' project of the Living Memory Association
- Collections relating to prominent LGBT individuals, such as:
- Edwin Morgan papers in Special Collections at the University of Glasgow and Edwin Morgan Archive at the Scottish Poetry Library.