New York Public Library Adds Archive of Historic LGBT and HIV Service Group GMHC to Special Collections

In October 2026, the New York Public Library (NYPL) added the GMHC Stories Collection oral history archive to its Special Collections. The collection documents the history and grassroots work of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the world’s first major community-based HIV/AIDS service organization, founded by gay activists in New York City in 1982 during the early days of the epidemic.

According to Gay City News, an event celebrating the acquisition and bringing together longtime members of the organization took place earlier this month at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), co-hosted by CUNY’s Public Science Project and the Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Binghamton University. The oral history initiative was spearheaded by Sean Massey, an associate professor at Binghamton University and former GMHC volunteer and staff member in the late 1980s and 1990s. The research team also included Western Carolina University assistant professor of history Julia Haager and student researchers Casey Adrian and Eden Lowinger. Over several years, the team recorded more than 100 in-depth video and audio interviews with former GMHC volunteers, staff members, and donors, while preserving original informational pamphlets, newsletters, and administrative documents from that era.

Dozens of attendees, including veteran volunteers, researchers, and queer historians, gathered for the presentation. Among them was physician and author Larry Mass, one of GMHC’s original co-founders, as well as renowned LGBTQ+ historian Jonathan Ned Katz. Participants emphasized that the collection captures the frontline experiences of everyday people who built systems of mutual care, home support, public health education, and legal advocacy in the face of fear, social stigma, and institutional inaction. The complete archive is housed in the library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division, with digital materials accessible to the public at gmhcstories.com.

Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) was established in January 1982 in the New York apartment of writer Larry Kramer after reports began emerging of rare cancers and immune disorders affecting young gay men in New York and California. Its co-founders included Nathan Fain, Larry Kramer, Lawrence Mass, Paul Popham, Paul Rapoport, and Edmund White. In response to a lack of institutional support, the group created the nation’s first AIDS hotline, established a volunteer home-care “buddy” program, produced sex-positive prevention materials, and offered legal advocacy, growing into a cornerstone public health organization in the United States.

Uránia previously reported that veterans and historians in New York marked the 25th anniversary of the ACT UP Oral History Project, which preserved nearly two hundred interviews with participants in the fight against HIV/AIDS during the 1980s and 1990s.