Collections

The Bobby Bremer Collection was donated to LaBudde Special Collections by Dr. Jay Wilkinson, a close friend of Bremer, in September 2012; a second donation was made in February 2014. It contains photographs from TAPS bar during the 1990s, parties and trips by Bremer, his partner and friends, Bremer’s commitment ceremony to his first partner at Metropolitan Community Church. These have been reconstructed from four scrapbooks and were re-arranged in a consistent order with reference of the album on the folder. The collection also houses memorabilia from Kansas City bars and the Hotel Muehlebach. There is also several T-shirts in this collection from different gay organizations, AIDS Memorial Quilt events, and a softball jacket

The Brad Harris Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections in the UMKC Miller Nichols Library by Cliff Schiappa in July 2017. The collection consists of various documents, reports, meeting notes, news articles, advertisements, bank statements, and organizational objectives for the Kansas City Chapter of the Human Rights Project. The Collection ranges in date from 1992 to 1995, and notable highlights include substantial documentation of the HRP’s board minutes, a mayoral questionnaire from Fmr. Mayor Emanuel Cleaver, II for the Political Action Committee, as well as outreach and financial documents associated with the Let Them Eat Cake fundraiser.

Newsletters, photos and other documents from the Kanas City Gay and Lesbian Outdoor Club.

The Butch Ellis collection was donated by Butch Ellis with the assistance of Michael Boles. The collection is comprised of a series of photographs and slides, mostly of Ellis performing.

The Chloe Wagner Collection was a gift of Chloe Wagner in July 2011. The collection contains many periodicals relating to LGBT matters, including an extensive run of Gay and Lesbian News-Telegraph issues. Various newspaper clippings, articles, publications, flyers, pamphlets and booklets are also here, representing a broad range of issues and events in the Kansas City area. A few representative items from Phoenix Books are included throughout this collection as well. Rounding out the collection is a wide array of photographs from Woman Vision art shows, 1991-93, as well as the Women’s Michigan Music Festival.

The Chris Almvig Scrapbook was a gift of Chris Almvig in 2010. The centerpiece of this scrapbook is a memoir entitled Recollections of Flying out of the Closet, in which Almvig chronicles the period in her life when she came out as a lesbian and moved to Kansas City, where she became involved in the Women’s Liberation Union and other advocacy groups. The memoir is accompanied by an addendum of “Attachments” – Poems, Essays, Articles, etc. – that provide more background into relevant people and events. The collection also contains newsletters and information from the Kansas City Women’s Liberation Union, and flyers for Woman: Challenges and Choices Conference.

The Chris Collins Collection was gifted by Collins in the Fall of 2012. The collection contains many periodicals related to local and regional Kansas City LGBT issues, as well as Drag Queen culture in many manifestations. Also housed within the collection are programs, newspaper clippings, and photographs related to Jewel Box Lounge, and local Drag Queen performers from the 1970s-90s in Kansas City.

The City of Fountains Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Collection was gifted to LaBudde Special Collections in December of 2021. It is categorized into paper documents, regalia, and artifacts. The materials in this collection range in date from 2016 to 2021.

Slides, photos, and artifacts from the donor’s domestic life with partner John Herbst.

The Coming Out Collection contains nearly a full run of Coming Out: A Lesbian Newsletter, two copies of most issues, as well as a run of OutSpoken, which appears to have been the successor to Coming Out (OutSpoken was published by Coming Out, Inc.). These publications were published in Columbia, Missouri, and focused on that city’s lesbian community. The collection contains a number of other LGBT-related periodicals, including some additional published works and other ephemera centered on the LGBT community in Columbia. Material from the 1993 March on Washington is also included in the collection.