As an archive, our primary goal is to collect the story of Kentucky’s LGBTQ community through documents, artifacts, and oral histories. We use this material to create our own programming, including exhibits, lectures, and walking tours. Collections within the archive are also available to other institutions and researchers.

The archive currently houses 15,000 items and more than 250 hours of recorded interviews.

Our work began in 2014 as a single effort to catalog the extensive LGBTQ collection of Kentucky artist Robert Morgan, including the estate of his mentor, Kentucky artist Henry Faulkner. Within weeks it became clear that this single project was transforming into a dynamic, important effort to save the queer history of Kentucky, as other individuals within the community began to deposit material, broadening the scope of the archive to include a diverse array of queer Kentucky stories.

The collections of the Faulkner Morgan Archive are unique in two ways. First, we only collect material with a direct relationship to Kentucky's LGBTQ community and LGBTQ Kentuckians. Second, we have developed an oral-history-based methodology of collecting, wherein donors are recorded describing their collection and the stories their collection holds. In effect, artifacts become tied to the oral histories of their donors, creating a rich resource for activists, scholars, artists, and museums.

Our collections represent numerous individuals, events, and institutions from across Kentucky, and help emphasise Kentucky's  important role within the broader national narrative of LGBTQ history. We are particularly strong in visual images and works of art and in the regions of Central and Eastern Kentucky. 

Are you interested in using our collections?

Do you have material or stories that shed light on Kentucky’s LGBTQ history?

Consider sharing them with us.