LGBTQ+ Research at Union College

This is a 124 box collection that documents the work of the Character Research Project, a pseudo-scientific project founded by Ernst Ligon of the Psychology Department in 1935. The Project described its main goal as the promotion of moral education among youth - and what this meant in reality was a lack of informed consent on the part of their participants and conservative Christian indoctrination. Records on the youth mating program that the CRP ran for high schoolers in the 1960s and 1970s reveal the enforcement of compulsory heterosexuality.

The AIDS Committee was co-founded and co-chaired by Professors Twitty J. Styles and Karen N. Williams of the Biology Department. Box 1 contains conference materials, pamphlets advertising various years of the Union College AIDS Awareness Week (held annually from 1986 to 1994), and an extensive collection of national and international media, including academic papers, newspaper clippings, posters, photographs, brochures, and pamphlets, which were disseminated among members of the Union community, several of which focus explicitly on LGBTQ+ health and wellness. Box 2 contains audiovisual material.

Women's Studies honors theses, reference files, and a survey on rape at Union College. [Content warning: mention of sexual assault/rape]

Material of note is a pamphlet entitled “A Brief History of the Union College Men’s Glee Club” from 1979, because it gives a comprehensive overview of Hugh Allen Wilson’s career and accomplishments up to that point.

Hugh Allen Wilson (1925-2010) was a Professor of Music at Union. Across his time at Union, he served as the director of the Union College choir, the director of the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs, and the Chair of the Department of the Arts. He was an accomplished and internationally renowned organist, harpsichordist, and conductor. He retired to Bolton Landing, New York with his partner Marshall Ford.

Contains Philosophy Department course syllabi from the 1970s and 1980s, with some relevant courses being “Issues in Feminism,” in which political lesbianism and lesbian separatism are discussed, “Masculinism/Feminism,” “Philosophy of Psychoanalysis,” and “Foundations of Feminist Thought.”

Contains large scrapbooks documenting photographs of Mountebanks performances across several decades. In the earliest scrapbooks, the names of the shows are given on most pages, but no specific date information, although it would appear that the scrapbooks are mostly arranged in chronological order. All Mountebanks performances from 1912 to 1934 feature male students performing female roles in drag.

Two boxes on the speakers, events, reports, and studies carried out by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, formed in 1975.

Robert Baker, a Professor of Bioethics and Philosophy, and Frederick Elliston, served as the editors of the book Philosophy and Sex, first published in 1975. Baker’s papers contain four editions of the book, ranging from 1975 to 2009, which include essays on the pathologization of homosexuality, the morality of the legalization of gay marriage, gender peformativity, the history of intersex categorizations, political lesbianism, the limitations of the gender binary, and a piece on why homosexuality is abnormal. [Content warning: use of now-outdated terminology for LGBTQ+ identifying people, gender essentialist rhetoric, psychoanalysis thinkers (Spitzer, Beiber) employed as an argument against homosexuality, equation of homosexuality and perversion.]

Twitty J. Styles was the co-founder of the AIDS Committee and UNITAS, and he has a folder documenting his work on each of these groups, primarily his correspondence, in his professional papers collection.

UNITAS was established in 1997 by Professors Twitty J. Styles and Carl George and their wives, Dr. Constance Glasgow and Gail George. The group focused on promoting intersectional multiculturalism, diversity, and community at Union. They sponsored a wide variety of events which supported their goals, some of which were LGBTQ+ oriented, such as UBGLAD’s 1999 Queer Visibility Week.

Relevant Files include Character Research Project, 1948-1999; Gay Students, 1981; Women at Union, 1962-1995; Women’s Studies, 1976-1989; Styles, Twitty J., 1993; Wilson, Hugh Allen, 1998

There are Vertical Files for all class years from 1809-2019. These files often include ReUnion directories and clippings of newspapers or articles that mention alumni. Many of the ReUnion directories include biographies detailing post-graduation life that have been written and submitted by alumni. If you are interested in information about a specific alum, or alumni from a specific time period, consulting the Vertical File that belongs to their class year is a good place to start.

Contains an email printout advertising a 2008 event hosted by Spectrum Gay/Straight Alliance, a 2009 call for entries for the LGBTQ+ Art Exhibit, hosted by the Mandeville Gallery, a copy of a Daily Gazette Article from 10/6/2010 discussing a campus march following the suicide of Tyler Clementi (warning: while the piece can be interpreted as overall sympathetic towards victims of homophobia, the author writes about Clementi, specifically his death, in a manner that many may consider insensitive), advertisements for the 2012/2013 Community Pride Walks hosted in April by Schenectady County Human Rights Commission’s LGBT Committee, advertised on Union’s campus, and an “LGBTQ Community” flier from c. 2009-2011 which describes that Union has an active LGBTQ community who had an “LGBTQ & U” Information Session during Orientation. [Content Warning: mention of suicide, homophobia-based bullying, and harassment]

Contains an advertisement for an October 5, 2010 “LGBTQ Support Rally,” a WNYT Article about Tyler Clementi, another photocopy of the Daily Gazette Article found in the previous Vertical File, a 2011 call for entries for the LGBTQ+ Art Exhibit, A 2013 advertisement for LGBTQ+ Prospective Students, a printed email from October 23, 2014 announcing the establishment of the Committee on LGBTQ+ Affairs. [Content Warning: mention of suicide, homophobia-based bullying, and harassment]

Relevant Course Syllabi range from 1997 to 2012, and they touch upon topics such as “abnormal psychology,” “psychology of sex roles,” “attachment and human relationships,” “psychotherapy,” “personality,” and “psychobiology.”

Donald Thurston (1929-2023) was a Professor of Political Science and History at Union. He was instrumental in the founding of the East Asian Studies Department at Union in 1989, and served as the inaugural chair. In 2022, Thurston established the Donald R. Thurston and Robert Englebach Professorship in Asian Studies, named after himself and his late husband. This folder contains an essay Thurston wrote about the Teacher’s Union of Japan, photocopies of two articles published in the Daily Gazette about Thurston, and a flier advertising his retirement reception.

Contains a calendar for UBGLAD’s October 1996 “QueerU: A Month of Education & Action.” Contains a flier from October 7, 1996 advertising one of the “QueerU” talks. Also contains three printed emails from 2001 and 2002 that were sent to all faculty members advertising various UBGLAD events.

Two folders containing a 1992 Union Women’s Handbook, GSWS course syllabi, department newsletters ranging over twenty years (until 2012).

Extensive collection of photographs of the Glee Club from a variety of different time periods, many of which are unlabeled and undated. There are several photographs of Hugh Allen Wilson dispersed throughout, most likely from sometime in the 1970s, including a photograph of Hugh Allen Wilson posing with the musical ensemble, and an action photograph of him directing the ensemble.

The folder contains photographs from the 2012 Pride March hosted on campus. These photographs mainly document off-campus, Schenectady based groups, organizations, and individuals who participated in the march. Congressional representative Paul Tonko is photographed giving a speech.

Two folders of an eclectic mix of Mountebanks photographs, largely from performances. Most are undated and unlabeled, but some have years and/or captions. All Mountebanks performances from 1912 to 1934 feature male students performing female roles in drag.

Donald Thurston (1929-2023) was a Professor of Political Science and History at Union. He was instrumental in the founding of the East Asian Studies Department at Union in 1989, and served as the inaugural chair. In 2022, Thurston established the Donald R. Thurston and Robert Englebach Professorship in Asian Studies, named after himself and his late husband.

Hugh Allen Wilson (1925-2010) was a Professor of Music at Union. Across his time at Union, he served as the director of the Union College choir, the director of the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs, and the Chair of the Department of the Arts. He was an accomplished and internationally renowned organist, harpsichordist, and conductor. He retired to Bolton Landing, New York with his partner Marshall Ford.