The Mazer Collections

The Mazer is committed to gathering and preserving materials by and about lesbians and feminists of all classes, ethnicities, races and experiences. Our collections include personal letters and scrapbooks, artwork, manuscripts, books, records, newspapers, magazines, photographs, videotapes, flyers, papers of lesbian organizations, private papers, and even clothing, such as softball uniforms from the 1940s and 50s. Hundreds of lesbians and feminists have been inspired to donate artifacts of their personal and collective histories.

The Mazer encourages all lesbians to deposit the everyday mementos of your lives so that others can discover them in the future. The privacy of any donor is protected to whatever extent desired.

Contact the Mazer to learn more about our collections or if you are interested in donating your own collection. Please note, that before donating any items to the Mazer, we ask that you first contact us by email or by phone at (310) 659-2478 to ensure the safety of your items.

Researching at the Mazer

Researchers, please let us know ahead of time what you are looking for so we can prepare and have material ready for you.

Access Note: Some collections may be located off site. If the material or collection(s) you are looking for are in off site storage, please give us 2 weeks to prepare these for you.

Our viewing hours at The Mazer are:
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sundays by advanced appointment
Please call 310-659-2478 for an appointment or email us

Other notable collections:

• The women of the West Coast Lesbian Collections for starting the preservation of our history and passing along materials from lesbians such as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Ruth Reid.
• Bunny Mac Culloch
• June Mazer – personal writings, ephemera, as well as her publications and clippings
• Judy Freespirit – personal papers
• Barbara Grier – collection of Lesbian, Gay & Women’s Publications
• Naiad Press – a copy of each publication
• Diana Press – organizational papers
• Daughters of Bilitis – organizational papers
• Southern California Women for Understanding – organizational papers
• Connexxus Women’s Center/Centro de Mujeres – organizational papers
• Los Angeles Women’s Community Chorus – organizational papers & music
• Terri de la Pena – personal papers
• Wolfe Video – videos
• Ardy Tibby – memorabilia
• Mickey Spencer – Broomstick organizational papers
• Jinx Beers & Alicia Austin - pulps
• Paradigm Records – LPs
• Dani Adams - WAVAW (Women Against Violence Against Women) organizational papers
• Tee Corrine – artwork & published books
• Pat Nordell – personal materials
• Degania Golove – lesbian studies research
• Christine Burton – Book Collection
• Mary Rudd – softball uniforms (1940s, 1950s & 1960s)
• Barbara Macdonald – personal papers
• Cynthia Rich – personal papers
• Bev Hickock - personal papers and photos
• J D Disalvatore – personal papers, videos, and photos
• Sherry Neterland
• Rita C. Gonzales

More Notable Collections will be available online soon.

Digital Collections

THE MAZER TShirts

The Mazer has hundreds of t-shirts from organizations, lesbian and feminist groups, activists, women and music festivals, and from some of the first women in men’s fields.

THE MAZER BUTTONS

The Mazer has many buttons in the collection which include the Gay Games, marches, political, Wendy Averill, women (non-lesbian) and many other miscellaneous buttons.

Exciting Digital News

The Mazer has recently digitized our subject files which are used by every researcher because of their vast contents spanning all of the LGBTQ Community. They are now hosted online by UCLA.

Check them out by clicking here.

Resource Guide to UCLA Collections

“Making Invisible Histories Visible” Resource Guide To The Collections

In 2014, we completed work with the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and the UCLA Library on the NEH Grant which resulted in over 80 collections processed by UCLA.  From that project, emerged this guide entitled,“Making Invisible Histories Visible”which describes the scope of the work, the people involved and the lesbian and feminist women’s collections that were processed.

“Making Invisible Histories Visible: Preserving the Legacy of Lesbian Feminist Activism and Writing in Los Angeles” project was a three year project to arrange, describe, digitize, and make physically and electronically accessible two major clusters of Mazer collections related to West Coast lesbian/feminist activism and writing since the 1930s. Edited by Kathleen A. McHugh, Brenda Johnson-Grau,and Ben Raphael Sher, the guide is now available in PDF format. Please use the link below to read online or to download & read in any PDF reader.

For detailed information on the partnership project initiated by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women to inventory, organize, preserve, and digitize several of Mazer’s key Los Angeles-themed collections and the resulting online finding aids, click here.

Click Here To Read Making Invisible Histories Visible