Positive History project: summer 2022 update

It has been a busy summer so far promoting the Positive History project at various events in London. Project Archivist Chris Olver joined the Learning and Engagement team at the Science Museum Late to celebrate 50 years of Pride. Chris gave visitors a sneak peak of the first set of filmed interviews from the National HIV Story Trust, which are now available in LMA’s Mediatheque. At the event, we also collected some wonderful contributions from the public of what LGBTQ stories they would want shared in 50 years’ time.

We also welcomed at the end of June a History of Medicine Summer School group from the University of South Carolina to view our HIV/AIDS collections. The group viewed documents from the Positively UK and Rukus! collections, before being the first external users to access the National HIV Story Trust interviews on LMA’s Mediatheque. We had some great feedback on the day, both in terms of the importance of the interviews for exploring the history of HIV and the accessibility of the Mediatheque platform.

Special thanks to one student who wrote on their evaluation form: 'such an excellent selection of interviews and IMPORTANT stories. Thank you for sharing it with us'

Project archivist Amy Proctor has also now begun cataloguing the archives of Positively UK. This charity was founded in 1987 by two women living with HIV to provide peer-led support for women living with HIV, after finding that no such services for women existed at that time. The archives comprise annual reports, newsletters, publications, correspondence and photographs. Some of these archives have recently been used in a series of workshops held by Positively UK in collaboration with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, as inspiration to produce new writing and dramatic performances.