The History of Pride in the Bloom Collection

In honor of LGBT Pride month, I want to call attention to the substantial runs of historic gay newspapers that are part of the Marshall Bloom Alternative Press Collection. These are just a few samples of the many publications in the Bloom Collection that document the struggle for gay rights throughout the 1970s and beyond. You can find many more examples in Bloom by searching the finding aid for publications with “gay” in the title, but there are less obvious titles as well (Mom…Guess What! for instance).

While Bloom is frequently used by students in the departments of Black Studies and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, the collection is a rich source for researching the history of the LGBT community during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

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The Bloom Alternative Press Collection

Marshall Bloom (1944-1969)

While most people associate Amherst College with poets like Emily Dickinson, Richard Wilbur, and Robert Frost, few realize that we are also home to one of the leading collections of underground newspapers from the 1960s and 70s. Marshall Bloom came to Amherst College in the fall of 1962 and graduated with the class of 1966. He participated fully in the civil rights movement that was sweeping across college campuses during that time, and he soon became a major force in the development of the alternative press in the United States. More details of his life are available in the Biographical Note section of the finding aid to The Marshall Bloom Papers held by the Archives & Special Collections.

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