Bishopsgate Institute’s Special Collections and Archives holds one of the most extensive collections on LGBTQ+ history, politics and culture in the UK. It covers the late nineteenth century onwards. The collections encompass LGBTQ+ history politics and culture, with archives from numerous organisations and individuals.

The Institute is also the proud custodian of the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA), including over 350,000 press cuttings from the straight press regarding LGBTQ+ history from the 1890s to today.

We hold a library of around 15,000 LGBTQ+ titles, from academic works, biographies, fiction and poetry to pulp fiction, along with over 700 journal titles from around the world.

The LGBTQ+ Pamphlet Collection contains around 3,500 items including programmes for festivals and events, material from campaigning organisations and catalogues. The collection also features extensive ephemera such as club flyers, t-shirts, banners and badges.

The Institute’s Special Collections and Archives also hosts the UK Leather and Fetish Archive, a national collection documenting the history and heritage of fetish, kink and BDSM in the UK. These archives contain organisational papers, flyers, journals, pamphlets, books and artefacts.

Join Special Collections and Archives Manager Stef Dickers to hear how the collections were gathered, the stories behind many of the collections and adventures of looking after the collections day to day.

About the Speaker

Stefan is the Special Collections and Archives Manager and has been responsible for the development of the Institute’s collections on the history of London, protest and activism and LGBTQ+ Britain. He qualified as an archivist in 2001 and started at Bishopsgate in 2005.

Previous to this, Stefan worked in the archives of the London School of Economics and Senate House Library.