Imperial courts collection

The materials in the Imperial Courts Collection comprise one of sixteen collections of records from the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, the world's largest repository of LGBTQ materials. These files document the lives of LGBTQ individuals from 1940 to 2012, the organizations they founded, the discrimination they faced, and the devastation of the AIDS crisis. Most of the items concern individuals or groups from California. The Imperial Courts originated in San Francisco in 1965 as gay community social and fundraising events with a camp Imperial theme. Covering the period from 1973 to 1994, the materials in this collection include photographs and negatives, flyers, organizational correspondence, court lists, polling sheets, clippings, notes, manuscripts, annual reports, and ephemera. This collection is vital for anyone researching the many facets of LGBTQ life in California and the United States in the second half of the twentieth century.