Garrett is a Peabody, Polk, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The collection features her research on HIV/AIDS and public health, correspondence, memorabilia, photographs, book and article drafts Garrett won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for her work chronicling the Ebola virus in Zaire published in Newsday. She is also a bestselling author of the book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. Garrett has worked for National Public Radio, Newsday, and was a senior fellow for The Council of Foreign Relations. She has won many awards including the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Bob Considine Award of the Overseas Press Club of America. Researchers are already using the collection and have found great interest in her work.
AIDS Education, MSS 2013-03, carton 25, folder 6
The collection is organized into seven series which include research and subject files, correspondence, newsletters, Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health and The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance drafts and notes, conferences, non-print material, correspondence, and memorabilia
Scrapbook, MSS 2013-03, oversize box 104
You can view the collection finding aid on the Online Archive of California. If you would like to visit the UCSF Archives and Special Collections and work with the complete physical collection, please make an appointment with us.
This is a post from intern Harold Hardin, working on the NEH grant-funded project The San Francisco Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic.
Sue Rochman papers, GLBTHS 2005-13 miscellaneous research papers
The Sue Rochman Papers (Collection 2005-13 at the GLBT Historical Society) contain critical information regarding the systematic oppression of incarcerated people living with HIV/AIDS in the first decade of the epidemic. The collection at just over 350 pages consists of interviews, newspaper clippings, and often most compellingly, correspondence from incarcerated people living with HIV/AIDS. Given the ongoing wave of HIV criminalization (a recent famous example being the case of Michael Johnson, who, incidentally, was released this month after spending five-years of a thirty-year sentence in Missouri, for allegedly seroconverting several partners with HIV without revealing his HIV-positive status) Micheal Johnson and Greg’s Smith’s cases among others were rallying cries for HIV/AIDS activists bringing to our collective attention the ongoing histories of HIV criminalization. It is particularly important to look back at the particular ways in which this stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS began within the prison system and consider an early case of which the Sue Rochman Papers document. In this way, we can further contextualize our current historical moment in regards to the continuing criminalization of people living with HIV/AIDS–particularly the ways in which black gay men are overwhelmingly impacted by this deleterious trend. The correspondence between Ms. Rochman and various incarcerated people in several different prison locations (Attica prison in New York, Chino prison in California among others) echo similar findings. The correspondence notes the systematic way in which prison officials valued “security” to the detriment of the lives of incarcerated people living with HIV/AIDS. Confidentiality rights regarding seroconversion status were routinely trampled and ignored at the behest of prison officials. There was little to no basic health information regarding the spread of the disease. Incarcerated people with HIV/AIDS were often isolated in poor conditions, with little medical attention by qualified specialists in HIV/AIDS. The widespread abuse of incarcerated people with HIV/AIDS by prison guards themselves was also well documented. Having the disease in prison not only meant living in such conditions but additionally meant being socially ostracized through officially sanctioned segregation–barred from participation in vocational programs, college classes, and not allowed to have family visits. A jail in Fort Worth, Texas went as far as mandating LGB incarcerated populations wear colored wrist bands to identify their sexual orientation from afar. From such systematic forms of discrimination it is unsurprising then that HIV criminalization was birthed in such an environment. The Rochman papers document the case of Greg Smith who in 1990 was convicted of attempted murder, assault and terroristic threats. Charges were filed after he allegedly bit and spat on a guard in a New Jersey jail in 1989. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial famously saying after his sentence was read, ‘I never bit an officer, and I’ll say that until the day I die. I may die in the next year or two, but I’ll die proud. I told the truth.” His case was taken up by ACLU via ACT UP prison-activist Judy Greenspan and a significant amount of Rochman papers covers Greenspan’s media campaign and legal filings. Smith, who ultimately died in prison in 2003, was an ACT UP activist, black and gay. His case is viewed as an early example of the compounding effects of race, class, sexual orientation and HIV status-indeed of HIV criminalization.
This is a guest post by intern Harold Hardin, who is working on the NEH Grant-Funded Project The Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic.
I came across recently a sardonic, humorously bizarre little zine in the Beowulf Thorne papers (GLBT Historical Society, 2003-10) called Diseased Pariah News (DPN). DPN was a zine created during the early 90’s that used gallows humor to humorously educate/entertain mostly gay (often white) cisgender men about HIV/AIDS among other gay men’s health issues. Humor is not something I would immediately associate with AIDS/HIV. Certainly, in the popular imagination AIDS and humor couldn’t be further apart. Queer white, cis, men living with HIV/AIDS in popular media depictions are generally akin to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia: a “noble, suffering AIDS victim”.
Further, many current LGBTQ media consumers tend to shy away from LGBTQ depictions that have overt internalized homophobia/transphobia, straying away from media depictions that might seem to make light of oppressive circumstances in ways that are ultimately self- cannibalizing. Rupaul was famously castigated for having content on her show that was deemed transphobic. Lisa Lampanelli, though not queer, is known for her gallows humor and recently left show business citing, “people in their 20s and 30s weren’t getting into that [insult comedy] tradition”. I spoke to a friend on Facebook about DPN and they echoed a popularly resonant sentiment, “I really don’t like to view historical media/works of art relating to our [queer] community. Because they always carry the hint of shame, of internalized homophobia and transphobia.”
Clearly, we are currently living through a shift in what we find humorous from particular groups of people based on their identities. And to be honest, it shouldn’t be ok for a white, cisgender, straight, man or woman to make jokes about communities that they historically (or contemporaneously, for that matter) oppress. But should queer people with HIV/AIDS be able to laugh at their own lived experiences? If observational comedy is about illuminating the mundane and often untintentionally humorous aspects of our everyday lives then DPN represents to me a group of queers with HIV/AIDS taking this to its’ logical conclusion: finding humor in the everyday lives of queer folx living with HIV/AIDS. Additionally, I think something is foreclosed when we as a queer community rush to quash inter-group humor that may on its surface appear aberrant. Queer people should be able to laugh at their own lived experiences if they so desire, especially, if by laughing, we find a form of resistance while skewering social and political realities that we ultimately find empowering.
Today’s post is an introduction from Ganzolboo Ayurzana, one of our current interns here in the Archives. Ganzolboo has actually been working with us for several months now, and he is helping us inventory born-digital collections materials which are currently stored with physical collections so that we can capture the data off of them before they become unreadable.
Hello, my name is Ganzolboo Ayurzana. I am a senior year student at San Francisco State University. I am currently pursuing a double major of computer and math. I am from Mongolia, and I came to this country in pursuit of greater knowledge and career. One thing interesting about me is that I am able to converse in 5 different languages — Mongolian, Korean, English, Japanese, and Russian. Ever since I was young I had a talent for picking up new languages faster than my peers. In my free time I like to play basketball, hang out with my friends, and write computer code. I am also a huge Marvel movie fan, and every movie that came out in theaters I would go watch at least twice; sometimes even thrice. I also love Harry Potter, and I have read the book and watched the movie enough times to know about it all inside out.
I am very much looking forward to getting to know this excellent group of people and learning more about what librarians do.
AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell making a peace sign, wearing University of California San Francisco School of Nursing t-shirt.
Memory Lives On: Documenting the HIV/AIDS Epidemic is an interdisciplinary symposium exploring and reflecting on topics related to archives and the practice of documenting the stories of HIV/AIDS.
The task of documenting the history of HIV/AIDS and thinking about the present and future of the epidemic is daunting. The enormity and complexity of the stories and perspectives on the disease, which has affected so many millions of patients and families around the world, present significant challenges that demand continual reexamination. Questions of “what do we collect and from where” and “whose stories do we know best.” The ways in which we handle documentary evidence and produce knowledge from that evidence has profound effects on a huge range of social, economic and health outcomes. In examining and reflecting on our knowledge of the history of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and its future, we hope to improve our understanding of the true effects of the disease, and what it can teach us about future epidemics.
The program committee invites submissions for presentations addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic from the wide-ranging perspectives of historians, archivists and librarians, artists, journalists, activists and community groups, scientific researchers, health care providers, and people living with HIV. We invite proposals from individuals with diverse experience and expertise on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in scholarship, research and advocacy. Proposals will be considered in a variety of forms including paper presentations, panel discussions and posters.
The Symposium will take place in Byers Auditorium in Genentech Hall at the UCSF Mission Bay Campus in San Francisco, October 4th and 5th 2019. The program will be an afternoon session and evening reception the first day, followed by a full day of presentations the second.
The Program Committee has identified the following themes to consider when developing your proposal, though we encourage creativity and experimentation in exploring themes, partnerships, and narrative ideas.
Documenting the epidemic: Gaps, silences and unheard voices
Creating an interdisciplinary narrative of an epidemic
Silent no more: Community, caretaker and patient stories
The San Francisco Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic
Biomedical story: From mystery disease to cure
From local to global: Learning from AIDS to address future epidemics
The Program Committee welcomes proposals for individual papers, panel discussion and posters. Individual papers with a similar focus will be assembled into a single session by the program committee. Usually 3-4 papers are included in a session. To allow adequate time for questions and discussion, panels should be limited to four participants in addition to a chair/facilitator. Please include the following in your complete proposal
Session title if submitting a full panel proposal (of no more than 20 words)
Session abstract if submitting a full panel proposal (up to 500 words)
Short session abstract for the program if submitting a full panel proposal (up to 50 words)
Paper or poster or presentation titles (if any), and names of corresponding presenters
Biographical paragraph for each presenter
E-mail address for each participant
Affiliation, city, state, and country for each participant
Social media handles or web addresses for each participant (optional)
Audiovisual needs
Special accommodation needs
The deadline for submissions is June 3. We will notify presenters if their proposal has been accepted by July 22.
Memory Lives On Program Committee
Victoria Harden, Ph.D., Director (retired) of the Office of NIH History
Monica Green, Ph.D., Professor of History, Arizona State University
Richard McKay, DPhil, Director of Studies for HPS at Magdalene College
Barbara A. Koenig, Professor of Medical Anthropology & Bioethics in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Health & Aging and Head of UCSF Bioethics Program
Jay Levy, MD, Professor UCSF School of Medicine
Eric Jost, Digital Marketing Manager, SF AIDS Foundation
Jon Cohen, Staff writer for Science Magazine
Mark Harrington, Executive Director, Treatment Action Group
William Schupbach, Wellcome Library
Jason Baumann, Susan and Douglas Dillon Assistant Director for Collection Development and Coordinator of Humanities and LGBT Collections
Polina Ilieva, Head of Archives & Special Collections, UCSF Library
We are excited to announce a new collection from the ZSFG Archives. The Longenecker Photograph Collection, consisting of twelve boxes of prints, negatives, and glass plate negatives, is now available for research.
Don S Longenecker was the official photographer for San Francisco General Hospital from the 1950s to the 1980s. During that time, he took photos of the interiors and exteriors of the hospital campus, staff, events, and patients, including portraits of staff members and medical photos of patients for use in publications.
ZSFG interns and residents, June 1959
Of particular note are the images that document the many changes to the hospital campus during the 30+ years of Longenecker’s career. For example, the collection features images of the addition of fire escapes to the Nightingale wards of Buildings 10, 20, 30, and 40, the demolition of the old administration building that originally stood at the front gate entrance to the hospital, and the dedication of the new pathology building in 1967, along with other photos of both interior and exterior remodeling and construction. The collection also includes detailed images of the brickwork and architecture of the historic buildings that date back to 1915.
Adding fire escapes to Buildings 30 and 40, circa 1950s.During demolition of the administration building, circa 1960s.
Other highlights of the collection include photos of the surgical amphitheater, Mission Emergency, the dedication of the Trauma Center, staff labor strikes, hospital equipment, and many photos of staff events and celebrations.
We are excited to announce the addition of a newly acquired collection to the archive. This collection includes materials assembled and organized by William R. Alschuler, California Institute of the Arts science faculty, for a class on the AIDS epidemic he was teaching in 1993-1996 entitled, “AIDS as exhibit.” It contains flyers, handouts, newsletters, and other publications from numerous public health departments and community based organizations in California and around the country with information about AIDS transmission and prevention, treatment, testing protocols, nutrition, service organizations, legal rights and educational resources as well as newspaper and journal clippings and course syllabi about the history of the AIDS epidemic. The final project of this class included exhibits curated by students that were displayed in hallways at California Institute of the Arts.
Today’s post is an introduction from Brittany Peretiako, our newest intern here in the Archives who will be working on helping us digitize materials and clean metadata in preparation for larger-scale digitization projects.
My name is Brittany Peretiako, and I am excited to join you all as an intern. As a brief introduction, I am originally from Santa Barbara, CA. I have three siblings, one brother and two sisters. My brother lives out in Arizona, and my sisters live in Emeryville. I moved to the bay area about three years ago to attend UC Berkeley where I earned my bachelor’s degree studying US history with a focus on human rights issues.
Currently, I live in Concord, CA with my husband Ivan and our one year old son Emery. We have another addition to our family on the way, who will be arriving in November. As a family, we love to spend time outside exploring the bay. One of our favorite activities is hiking, and we are always looking for new trails to take.
I am enrolled in an online archives and records administration graduate program through San Jose State University. Although I am only in my first year, I have learned so much already and cannot wait to see what lies ahead. During my time as an intern here, I will be working on metadata clean-up and digitization. I may also have the opportunity to participate in web archiving. I was drawn to this position because it provides me with an opportunity to apply the skills I am learning in school to real-world tasks. Much of my schoolwork involves simply learning the importance of items such as metadata and digitization, but does not provide the ability to actually do hands-on work.
I look forward to getting to know all of you better over the next three months!
As part of our current National Archive NHPRC grant project “Evolution of San Francisco’s Response to a Public Health Crisis: Providing Access to New AIDS History Collections,” we’ve been processing the papers of Laurie Garrett. Garrett is a Peabody, Polk, and Pulitzer Prize award winning journalist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for her work chronicling the Ebola virus in Zaire published in Newsday. She is also a bestselling author of the book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. Garrett has worked for National Public Radio, Newsday, and was a senior fellow for The Council of Foreign Relations. She has won many awards including the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Bob Considine Award of the Overseas Press Club of America.
Laurie Garrett, photograph by Erica Berger, MSS 2013-03
The Laurie Garrett papers include drafts of her two books, The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust. The collection also includes material related to her service in The Council on Foreign Relations. Garrett’s papers feature correspondence, records of the various national and international conferences and meetings of which she was a part. Some unique types of material present in the collection include audiovisual recordings, photographs, videotapes, film reels, notebooks, and interviews.
Once the Laurie Garrett papers are processed, a finding aid will be prepared and put on the Online Archive of California, and a small selection of the collection will be digitized and made available online to researchers via Calisphere.
-Edith Martinez, processing archivist for AIDS History Project
Harold Hardin is joining us in Archives & Special Collections this spring to work on finishing the NEH grant-funded project The San Francisco Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic. Harold will be helping QA digital objects among other tasks related to the digitization workflow.
Harold Hardin is a current student in Cuesta Colleges’ Library/Information Technology program and San Francisco City College’s Paralegal Studies program. While pursuing a double major in Sociology/Critical Race Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz Harold developed an academic interest in the often hidden and occluded histories of marginalized communities, particularly histories of oppression and resistance. Through their own experiences of political activism at UC Santa Cruz and beyond (#Blacklivesmatter Oakland/ Stockton, GaySHAME SF) Harold has insisted on moving iteratively between theory and praxis: centering an intersectional feminist analysis of power.
These analytical lenses and political participation increased Harold’s consciousness regarding the fundamental ways in which access to information (particularly personal/community histories) profoundly shapes participation in our democracy (or lack thereof). Harold is interested in the nuances of political participation and uncovering the innumerable sites of quotidian resistance! Therefore, Harold sees their internship within UCSF’s AIDS History Project as not only a unique privilege to work toward increasing community access to Queer history, but also, and importantly, an extension of the deeply personal (political) work of (re)understanding their multiple positions within (and outside) of the Archives.
