SEATTLE — Throughout the Seattle Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), there are exhibits big and small that serve as reminders of the city’s deep gay history.
“The LGBTQ+ community has been the victim of harassment, legal discrimination, and just about every other facet of opposition you can imagine, and so we’ve sometimes hidden our history for fear that revealing it would put our safety at risk,” said Leonard Garfield, executive director of MOHAI. “Now is our chance to look back and say this is the history I saved, this is the courage I saved, and now I can share it. And I can share it with pride.”
Garfield, along with his colleague Deborah Romanek and Seattle Pride, are now sharing that history in full, and their work can be found both in the museum and online in a digital exhibit called “Pride Artifacts.”
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Objects of Pride is a digital curation showcasing snapshots of LGBTQ+ history.
“There’s a history that’s been made invisible over time, and this is one of those communities where not only has its history been ignored, but there’s often been active efforts within this community to make that history invisible,” Romanek said.
That’s why the museum works tirelessly to provide a visual platform for the community: preserving exhibits on the museum’s website, making pieces of history accessible to anyone, anywhere.
And in the spirit of pride, the exhibit is offering a special addition: “inclusions”: an online submission form inviting the public to add their own pieces of history to the collection.
“We ask people to talk about objects, artefacts, images and history that are meaningful to them that have shaped their lives and share that with us so that we can in turn share it with the broader community. The best way to discover history is to turn to the community and ask them to tell you their stories,” Garfield says.
A story told in many different ways.
“It could be a piece of clothing we saved, a sign we had for a protest, or simply a coaster from a bar where we met friends. These are the kinds of items that sometimes get forgotten, especially in an era before digital photography was ubiquitous. This is how we preserve and share their stories,” Garfield says. “If your neighbors, friends, family, or loved ones played a role in this history, even on the most intimate level, please share it with MOHAI.”
