June 22, 2022: Wilford Kale for The Virginia Gazette

“WILLIAMSBURG – A new archive collection has been established at the College of William & Mary that focuses on American LGBTQ political and legal history.

The archive is being created in memory of renowned historian John Boswell, a 1969 graduate of William & Mary, who became a leading authority on religion and homosexuality before his death in 1994. One of the academic buildings at William & Mary was renamed in his honor last year.

Former college Rector Jeff Trammell, the first openly gay board chairman of a major public university, was instrumental in helping establish the archive after he learned of two friends “who had tens of thousands of papers on the gay-lesbian movement.”

“They had amassed amazing files of legal and political papers on governmental action through the years,” Trammell said. “They were looking for broader exposure. I told them I know of an institution where they could go … and I reached out to Swem Library at the college and they were extremely interested.”

The collectors were Pate Felts, W&M MBA ‘78, and Charles Francis, co-founders of the Mattachine Collection of LGBTQ material and officers of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., of which Trammell was an advisory board member.”

Read more here.