History is only as representative as the archive allows. Oscar Brown ’26 interned with the nonprofit Queer History Boston (formerly The History Project) to work hands-on as a historical researcher on LGBTQ+ history in Boston and the greater New England area, preserving queer stories to add to the historical canon.
Queer History Boston is one of the largest LGBTQ+ archives in the nation, with collections containing more than one million documents. The archive was independently founded by a group of activists without association to another institution. The collections are highly accessible to the public, and the organization creates exhibitions and outreach programs to reach as much of the community as possible.
Brown represented the organization at community events and worked on projects such as collection highlights booklets, public history programming initiatives, and a large-scale digitization project for an exhibition on drag history.
“Being able to interact with these community members on such a personal level was profoundly impactful, and truly showed me the importance of being a queer community archive space,” Brown says. “This is one of the few areas where queer individuals can see their collective history, can recognize themselves within our collections, and be understood through the people of the past. This feeling is an embodiment of the saying ‘we have always been here.’”
Brown joined the team at the beginning of June, one of the biggest months for any LGBTQ+ organization: Pride Month. He tabled at countless Pride Month events in the area to help showcase Queer History Boston as a community archive dedicated to sharing collections with both the public and researchers.
He says one of the highlights of his summer was a community scanning day helmed by the Boston Public Library. This scanning day brought in local members of the Boston community looking to have their personal collections scanned, digitized, and put on a personal thumb drive, as well as optionally uploaded to digital archive websites.
On days dedicated to working in Queer History Boston’s archives, Brown says he conducted research on collections to be published as a highlight booklet, reconciled metadata for 200 digitized oral history interviews, and scanned more than 300 photographs as part of a large-scale digitization project to support an upcoming exhibit on Boston drag history, among other hands-on archival tasks. His summer experience gave back to the community while preparing him for a potential career path relating to the archive.
Colgate and its generous alumni and parent donors offer grants to support students’ living costs and supplemental expenses to pursue unpaid and underpaid summer experiences. Learn more about Colgate Summer Internship Funding.
As a historical researcher, being able to work hands-on in the archives and learn how to transform our materials into publicly accessible and engaging material is vitally important to my work, and I have gained skills and knowledge that I will carry forward with me throughout the rest of my life.