Since her appointment last September as the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ first curator of community histories, Sarah Calise has been steadily expanding Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ collections. The process has been equal parts nuts-and-bolts archival work—assessing, collecting, organizing and preserving historical items that document the LGBTQ+ experience in Nashville and Middle Tennessee—and dedicated relationship building.
Archivists have the solemn responsibility of safekeeping the artifacts that tell the story of a particular people, place or time. Telling the stories of underrepresented groups, especially in our local community, is long overdue, Calise said, and something the Heard Libraries and peer institutions are increasingly eager to address.
“The LGBTQ+ community, the Black community, the Latinx community and other marginalized voices have largely been left out of the archival narrative—not only at Vanderbilt but at other institutions,” she said. “These are our students, our staff and our faculty. We live here, work here and play here, and our stories deserve to be told.”
Focusing on these groups recognizes their rich histories and contributions, and places them within the larger narrative context of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. It also allows Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives to bring the full weight of its archival and digital preservation expertise to bear on an initiative with direct ties to the libraries’ strategic mission.
“It’s a way for the university to give back to our local community—of saying, ‘We see you. We see your important history,’” Calise said. “Vanderbilt has the resources to preserve this history, protect this history, and share it with not only the Nashville community, but across the U.S. and globally through our digital collections.”
Calise is, perhaps, eminently qualified for her role. She holds a bachelor’s in history from the University of Florida, where an internship at the school’s special collections library first ignited her love of archival work. She earned a master’s in public history at Middle Tennessee State University, and while pursuing a master’s in information sciences from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, Calise created the website for Nashville Queer History, which she describes as both a community organization and a digital portal.
“It was a student project that my professor encouraged me to continue. I also wanted to do it because I wanted to know my own queer history. I wanted to know the queer history of the community in which I lived,” Calise said. Nashville Queer History continues today as a valuable information source with a robust social media following.
Calise has created official driving tours of LGBTQ+ historical sites in Nashville, spearheaded efforts to place historical markers around the city, and is writing a book about Nashville’s queer history from the 1890s to the 1990s slated for publication by Vanderbilt University Press late next year. All have raised her profile as a go-to resource for local LGBTQ+ history and preservation.
The valuable connections Calise has made through her community outreach have enabled her to build on the Heard Libraries’ existing LGBTQ+ collections.
“What Sarah has already accomplished has exceeded our expectations. She’s been able to focus her energies and promote our interests, which is helping us make inroads in documenting underrepresented communities in Middle Tennessee,” University Archivist Kathleen Smith said. “You have to do the delicate work of building relationships with folks, and people in marginalized communities often have been burned many times and in many ways.” Smith likens earning their trust to “turning a ship.”
“An unanticipated bonus has been the enthusiasm of our student body to work with these collections and their genuine excitement to assist in preserving materials from underrepresented groups,” she said.
Recent Heard Libraries acquisitions include the Ron Sanford Papers, an extensive collection of photographs, costumes, documents and other three-dimensional artifacts related to Sanford’s career as a producer of drag performances and pageants as well as his life as an openly gay man living in Nashville and other parts of the country. Sanford was close friends with prominent Nashville drag performers who successfully used their platform to raise awareness and funding in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and their personal items—including gowns, pageant crowns and wigs—are part of this collection.
The Tina Louise Hummer Papers comprise 19 personal scrapbooks that document drag performance and pageantry across the Southern and Midwestern United States from the 1970s to the 2000s and provide unique insight into Hummer’s life and interests. The Middle Tennessee LGBTQ Collection includes rare publications, paper documents, photographs and other artifacts spanning 1977–2023 collected at local events or purchased by Calise or by Special Collections. Regular open house events, curator talks and campus gatherings allow the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities to interact up close with these items and more.
“The Heard Libraries’ efforts to preserve and showcase these unique LGBTQ+ collections have enabled us to engage meaningfully with local and regional audiences while fostering knowledge creation,” University Librarian Jon Shaw said. “As the university strives to create a culture of belonging in which all members of our campus community can engage in dialogue and discovery, it’s critical that the libraries provide beneficial resources such as these to document past experiences and broaden perspectives.”
Special Collections and University Archives will mark Transgender Day of Remembrance with “Archiving Trans Lives,” a community dinner and archival display, on Thursday, Nov. 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to transgender and non-binary community members and their allies.