To identify institutional or capital A Archives, that is archives that are more likely to have the funding to be OCLC members, and/or the time and expertise to provide ArchiveGrid access to their finding aids. Per their about page, any archive may contribute, but in reality, many community, nonprofit, and outsider archives do not participate.
Following are descriptions from handful of archives I contacted or was informed about directly, listed in alphabetical order. Many other archives, special collections, libraries, and cultural memory institutions will also have holdings. Researchers may need to search catalogs or finding aids or ask for guidance identifying materials at these other archives.
To find materials related to the Scholar & Feminist Conference IX, I recommend a catalog search for < barnard sex* conference >. One might also broaden out and look up < "feminist sex wars" OR "lesbian sex wars" > or the names of individuals prominently associated with the debate. (Ignore the brackets in my search strings, but not the punctuation or the capitalization. If you want to know more about them, learn about truncation, proximity, and Boolean searching.)
Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York. Davis attended the conference and audiotaped some of the sessions.
Interference Archive archivist Jen Hoyer writes, "relevant material such as Heresies magazine; issues of the Coyote Howls newspaper; visual material produced by the Guerrilla Girls and the Sister Serpents; pamphlets and zines exploring gender, sexuality, and reproductive rights; and lots more!" The archive's catalog is down right now for a software upgrade. Once it is reinstated, researchers can use it, with the caveat that most of the collection is not yet represented in the catalog. Go visit the archive in Brooklyn, NY!
The Lesbian Herstory Archives has a search box set up to Google crawl the site, but few of the archive's holdings are represented digitally on the site.
Researchers can visit the collections page to get an idea of where to begin. The sexuality listing in the subject files includes a subcategory for "The Scholar and the Feminist IX: Towards a Politics of Sexuality," Conference, 1982, as well as Butch/Fem, Pat Califia, and S/M. There is also a file for Pornography. Joan Nestle's file contains Barnard content, and there are organizational files for the Lesbian Sex Mafia and Samois.
There is a separate Special Collections site that can be searched or browsed by date or the alphabet. They have an extensive collection of low distribution newsletters, many local to the New York City area.
The archive holds audio recordings of conference sessions: Politically Correct, Politically Incorrect session (SPW 1259), the Beyond the Gay/Straight Split session (SPW 1302 + 1584), and Rubin's Concepts for a Radical Politics of Sex (SPW 1530), and perhaps more. In addition, LHA has a recording of a planning meeting after the conference, with Vance, Rubin, Newton, Hollibaugh, etc. in attendance (SPW 1526 + 1527), a recording of Nestle's phone interview with off our backs (SPW 1529), and a recording of the Lesbian Sex Mafia Speakout following the Barnard conference (1532 + 1533).
A search of their digital photographs collection for < barnard > yields 29 results, many of them related to Scholar & Feminist IX, notably Judith Butler and "Woman Holding Dildo" at the Lesbian Sex Mafia "Speakout on Politically Incorrect Sex" held the day after the conference. Barnard Sex Conference is a category, as is sex wars. The sex conference photos are by Morgan Gwenwald, who has additional photos in the collection.
"The Feminist Theory Archive collects the papers of feminist theorists and scholars of difference in the United States and internationally, spanning from the 1970s to the present. For more information, visit the archive's webpage or view the libguide to the collection."
Kate Bornstein papers, 1910-2018
Doane (Mary Ann) papers, 1966-2009
Jodi L. Glass papers, 1978-2002
On Our Backs archive, 1983-1995
An article about a class called Teaching Controversy led me to the following collections:
Bingham Center Research Services and Collection Development Librarian Kelly Wooten has gotten questions about the sex conference so often, that in 2014 she created and updates a list of collections to refer researchers to:
Robin Morgan papers
Anti-porn files in box S17 are related to Woman Against Porn.
Alix Kates Shulman papers, box PW1/LW1- file on WAP
Cookie Teer has some materials, box 34-35, maybe others- looks like she has the most material and would have been involved or supportive of WAP. She was in Chapel Hill and did similar work.
Irene Peslikis has a folder on WAP in box 23
Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, probably newsletter or mailings- box 9 (1 folder on WAP)
There's another folder of newsletters in box 45 of the ALFA periodicals
Women’s & LGBT periodicals collection
Kate Millett papers
Barnard conference in Box W5
Sara Evans- Box 9 has folder on Barnard Conference
Ann Snitow Papers
Box 22
Thanks Rachel Corbman for tipping me off to this collection. One may conclude that you never know which archives will have sex wars holdings!
