The Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project
Project Overview
- The Project was conceived in 1996, and began its work with its first interview in 1998.
- Arden Eversmeyer is the Founder and Director of the OLOHP.
- Herstories are gathered in one-on-one interviews conducted by other old lesbians.
- Arden conducted almost every one of the first 100 interviews.
- Interviews are later transcribed and put together with photos and other supporting documents.
- By mid-2017, the Project will have gathered and preserved more than 600 life stories.
- More than 90% of the women interviewed were 70 years of age or older. Nine of those women were in their 90s and 73 of them were in their 80s when interviewed.
- Interviewers range from age 62 to 85.
- Stories have been gathered from women of all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. They represent stories from 39 states as well as a few of women living in Japan, Australia, Canada and Costa Rica.
- The OLOHP is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-proift organization, allowing for tax-deductible donations.
Mission StatementThe Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project is designed to capture the Herstories of old lesbians in order to: preserve our personal and cultural history. educate lesbians of all ages about the lives that women led in the years before coming out was a safe and viable option. remind us all of the relative freedom we now enjoy because of the women who were strong enough to live their lives and love whom they wanted in a hostile society. to provide an archival resource for scholars. to help younger generations understand the variety of experiences of old lesbians in areas of work, love, relationships, coming out, activism, and more.
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Goals of the OLOHPThe goals of the OLOHP are:
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FAQs
About how the Project started and why it was shaped the way it is…
Whose project it it?
The OLOHP is the brainchild of Arden Eversmeyer. After operating informally for almost a decade, it was incorporated in 2007 and was granted non-profit status in early 2008. The Project is overseen by a Board of Directors. Arden Eversmeyer served as the Project Director until her death in late 2022. Margaret Purcell serves as Board President and Project Manager.
When was the Project started? And why?
In 1996, the idea for the Project came about when Arden looked around at her social circle, most of them her contemporaries born in the 1920s and 30s, and realized that as we lose our friends, their unique stories are, too often, lost with them. Research made it clear that no one was working to save these stories. After some trial and error, the Project was born. Arden led the Project by herself for years before reaching out to others to help and expand the Project's scope.
Why is the sole focus on old lesbians?
The word "old" clearly tells you something significant about the focus of the Project. "Older" is nebulous: if we told you Julie is older than Carol, you still don't have any idea about their ages. If we used alternate terms such as elder and senior, the same problem would exist. But when we tell you that Julie is old, you have a good sense of her age. We focus on women at least 70 years of age. We use the word "old" with pride and because it is accurate. Not everyone sharing her story uses the term, but the Project does.
Why use the oral tradition?
When asked to write about your own life, the resulting information will be drastically different from that same story told aloud. When writing, we self-edit, and worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and more. When telling the story out loud, it's more free flowing, often leading in directions a written history would not. There is something magical about listening to one of our women talk about her life. It's so very different from what we would get if we'd asked her to write her own story.
Why Herstory, not History?
We choose the word Herstory because it clearly conveys that this is about women. While the word history technically is gender neutral, after being basically ignored for hundreds of years by male historians. What wasn't ignored, was minimized. So, we opt for Herstory.
What does the Project mean by "life" stories?
A woman is asked to tell whatever she'd like to share about her whole life. Typically, the interview begins by asking her to tell where she was born, a little bit about her parents and siblings, and about her early education. These are all things that contribute to who a person becomes, so they are important to the story.
Do the stories focus on sexual aspects of their lives?
Rarely. These are life stories. Some women do talk about sex, but many don't. We don't ask, but neither do we discourage it… if a woman opts to share about that aspect of her life, that is her choice. We are very interested in learning how she feels being a lesbian has affected her life.
Are the stories very different from each other?
Absolutely. As you'd expect, there are some commonalities since they all basically went through their teens during the 30s and 40s, and such. But each woman grew up in unique circumstances and had unique experiences. The result: stories that are incredibly varied.
Why the 70 years of age cutoff?
This Project grew out of Arden Evermeyer's interest in learning how her contemporaries found each other, and what their experiences were living as lesbians. Arden decided to gather the stories of her contemporaries, women who had a shared experience, growing up before there were lesbian organizations, support services, books or other resources. Since the stories of older lesbians were also the most likely to be lost when women either died or became unable to tell their stories, it was decided that 70 years of age or older would be a basic criterion.
The OLOHP has grown for almost twenty years, women born in the mid-to-late 40s are reaching the 70 year old mark. Many of their stories differ from those of women born in the 20s or 30s. They are just as valuable, often reflecting a different set of experiences than those of the women who came before them. That, too, is important to know.
Are there exceptions to the 70 or older rule?
Yes. A few stories have been gathered from women under 70. Most often, the exception was made because of health concerns. Another exception is for our interviewers. As part of our interviewer's training, they share their stories first, and some are not yet 70 years old.
How many Herstories are there?
This is a moving target! As of early 2016, the OLOHP had conducted approximately 450 interviews, but many are still somewhere in the process of being assembled as complete Herstories. The whole process may take longer than a year.
What’s in it for the woman telling her story?
Telling her life story is a meaningful experience in and of itself. Many women express their hopes that by telling their stories, readers will both learn about what these women had to go through and also be inspired by what they accomplished.
Is the Project interested only in stories of woman who are “out” lesbians?
No. Stories range from women who are totally out, and have been for years, to women who have never been out. Being willing to tell one's own story takes someone comfortable talking about who she is. Most of the women in the collection have been out to some degree, if only to their close friends.
Are all the stories about women who were “out” early in their life?
No again. There are, in fact, a few stories in the collection about women who didn't come out until they were 60 or even older. One woman told us that while she knew about her sexuality early in life, she came out for the first time right before she turned 80!
Will you'll ever run out of women to interview?
No. Although we expect the common elements in the stories will change as time goes by since the experiences of women born in the 30s will differ significantly from those born in the 40s or 50s.
Is there a cost to the woman telling her story?
No. The Project absorbs the costs, larglely through the thousands of volunteer hours contributed to the OLOHP. Funding has primarily come through personal donations, grants from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and some financial support from OLOC, Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
About the process itself…
How does the Project connect with women willing to tell their stories?
Word of mouth has been the best way to find women for the Project. Almost every old lesbian has friends who are old lesbians, and they too have friends. We also do presentations at LGBTQ centers and other events where old lesbians are likely to gather. Some outreach is done via the internet, but the personal contact has been much more effective.
What are the basic steps of the a Herstory?
Once a woman agrees to share her story, she is matched with an interviewer. Together, they set a date and place for conducting the interview. At this point, the Project provides printed information about the process which tells a bit about the women who will be working with her. This includes direct contact with the interviewer, but also those who work behind the scenes, transcribing, scanning, printing, etc. She is also given a list of suggested questions and topics to guide the interview.
We ask the woman to gather any photos or other supporting documents she'd like included in her story. We scan those items as quickly as possible and get them back to the woman. The scans and audio files then go to the OLOHP Project Manager. As soon as a transcriber is available, the audio is transcribed. The transcript is sent to the woman sharing her story and she is asked to make any corrections, deletions or additions. Once that is done, the final transcript is put together with the support documents, a title page, and a copy of the contract.
A copy of the finished Herstory is then sent to the woman who shared her story. This process, from beginning to end, may take as few as three months, or as long as a year or two, depending on how long the wait is for a transcriber, and how long it takes for the woman to do her edits.
Who conducts the interviews?
Sharing a life story for this project takes a bit of faith on the part of the story teller. The woman needs to be comfortable with the interviewer and it is helpful if she feels the interviewer can relate to her story. The OLOHP has a goal of limiting interviewing to women who are both lesbian and old, ideally in their 60s or 70s themselves. For the first decade of the Project, most of the interviews were conducted by Arden Eversmeyer. Now she has trained several other women to help in this effort.
Where are the interviews done?
Most interviews are done in the woman's home where she is likely to be the most comfortable. When an interview is arranged, we encourage the woman to sit in her favorite chair and relax. Occasionally, interviews have been done at events such as an OLOC Gathering or a women's music festival.
What are the support documents?
Most often the support documents are photos, from early life to the present. They may also include articles written by the woman, books she authored, artwork she has created, correspondences, graduation certificates, and even an occasional piece of clothing.
What does a finished Herstory look like?
Most of the Herstories are now being comb-bound into book form. Each copy contains a transcript of the interview and photocopies of any supplemental documents the woman provided. This might be a mix of photographs, graduation certificates, awards, newspaper clippings, etc. What is included is, for the most part, up to the woman since it is her story.
What happens once the interview is finished?
A printed "book" of the woman's story, accompanied by any photographs or other supporting documents she provided, goes to the woman who has shared her story. Another copy goes into the OLOHP collection. Ultimately, those stories are being transferred into the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton.
About contracts with the women…
Does the woman telling her story give her permission for its use?
Women sharing their stories sign a contract with the OLOHP. There are two versions: unconditional and conditional. The unconditional contract authorizes the OLOHP to use the interviews in ways the Project deems appropriate. With a conditional contract, the woman sharing her story is encouraged to write in any restrictions. Examples of conditions are "not to be used until after my death" and "for research purposes only." Contracts are signed at the time of the interview.
Whose stories are used in the books, newsletter, presentations and such?
The Project makes a concerted effort to abide by the terms of the contract the woman has signed. In the case of the books, and for the DVD that is currently being produced (Our Stories, Our Voices: The Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project), not only does the Project adhere to the original contract, it contacts any interviewee still living to get special permission for parts of their story to be used in those manners.
About accessing the stories…
How does the OLOHP plan to use the stories they collect?
The primary goal is twofold: 1. to let the woman sharing her story know that what she has to say is valuable, and 2. to accumulate an archive of information that will be used for research and education. To that end, the stories will all be archived at Smith College.
Is there a way to read parts of the interviews?
"How can we read the stories?" is a common question asked of the Project. Since most people aren't able to travel to Smith College to view the Herstories, we undertook the project of producing two books. The books are, essentially, condensed versions of some of the stories, relying very heavily on direct quotes from the interviews. Women whose stories are in our two books have given special permission – we won't use your story in this way without your specific permission.
The two books are: A Gift of Age: Old Lesbian Life Stories and Without Apology: Old Lesbian Life Stories. Each shares the stories of 23 women and both are available directly from us or through Amazon.com. When time allows, we hope to produce a third book.
Why aren't they all available on this website?
Our goal is to eventually have a few of them on our website. There are some that won't appear because those women have not given full permission to use their materials. Until then, be sure to look at the Passages and the Profiles.
Whose project it it?
The OLOHP is the brainchild of Arden Eversmeyer. After operating informally for almost a decade, it was incorporated in 2007 and was granted non-profit status in early 2008. The Project is overseen by a Board of Directors. Arden Eversmeyer served as the Project Director until her death in late 2022. Margaret Purcell serves as Board President and Project Manager.
When was the Project started? And why?
In 1996, the idea for the Project came about when Arden looked around at her social circle, most of them her contemporaries born in the 1920s and 30s, and realized that as we lose our friends, their unique stories are, too often, lost with them. Research made it clear that no one was working to save these stories. After some trial and error, the Project was born. Arden led the Project by herself for years before reaching out to others to help and expand the Project's scope.
Why is the sole focus on old lesbians?
The word "old" clearly tells you something significant about the focus of the Project. "Older" is nebulous: if we told you Julie is older than Carol, you still don't have any idea about their ages. If we used alternate terms such as elder and senior, the same problem would exist. But when we tell you that Julie is old, you have a good sense of her age. We focus on women at least 70 years of age. We use the word "old" with pride and because it is accurate. Not everyone sharing her story uses the term, but the Project does.
Why use the oral tradition?
When asked to write about your own life, the resulting information will be drastically different from that same story told aloud. When writing, we self-edit, and worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and more. When telling the story out loud, it's more free flowing, often leading in directions a written history would not. There is something magical about listening to one of our women talk about her life. It's so very different from what we would get if we'd asked her to write her own story.
Why Herstory, not History?
We choose the word Herstory because it clearly conveys that this is about women. While the word history technically is gender neutral, after being basically ignored for hundreds of years by male historians. What wasn't ignored, was minimized. So, we opt for Herstory.
What does the Project mean by "life" stories?
A woman is asked to tell whatever she'd like to share about her whole life. Typically, the interview begins by asking her to tell where she was born, a little bit about her parents and siblings, and about her early education. These are all things that contribute to who a person becomes, so they are important to the story.
Do the stories focus on sexual aspects of their lives?
Rarely. These are life stories. Some women do talk about sex, but many don't. We don't ask, but neither do we discourage it… if a woman opts to share about that aspect of her life, that is her choice. We are very interested in learning how she feels being a lesbian has affected her life.
Are the stories very different from each other?
Absolutely. As you'd expect, there are some commonalities since they all basically went through their teens during the 30s and 40s, and such. But each woman grew up in unique circumstances and had unique experiences. The result: stories that are incredibly varied.
Why the 70 years of age cutoff?
This Project grew out of Arden Evermeyer's interest in learning how her contemporaries found each other, and what their experiences were living as lesbians. Arden decided to gather the stories of her contemporaries, women who had a shared experience, growing up before there were lesbian organizations, support services, books or other resources. Since the stories of older lesbians were also the most likely to be lost when women either died or became unable to tell their stories, it was decided that 70 years of age or older would be a basic criterion.
The OLOHP has grown for almost twenty years, women born in the mid-to-late 40s are reaching the 70 year old mark. Many of their stories differ from those of women born in the 20s or 30s. They are just as valuable, often reflecting a different set of experiences than those of the women who came before them. That, too, is important to know.
Are there exceptions to the 70 or older rule?
Yes. A few stories have been gathered from women under 70. Most often, the exception was made because of health concerns. Another exception is for our interviewers. As part of our interviewer's training, they share their stories first, and some are not yet 70 years old.
How many Herstories are there?
This is a moving target! As of early 2016, the OLOHP had conducted approximately 450 interviews, but many are still somewhere in the process of being assembled as complete Herstories. The whole process may take longer than a year.
What’s in it for the woman telling her story?
Telling her life story is a meaningful experience in and of itself. Many women express their hopes that by telling their stories, readers will both learn about what these women had to go through and also be inspired by what they accomplished.
Is the Project interested only in stories of woman who are “out” lesbians?
No. Stories range from women who are totally out, and have been for years, to women who have never been out. Being willing to tell one's own story takes someone comfortable talking about who she is. Most of the women in the collection have been out to some degree, if only to their close friends.
Are all the stories about women who were “out” early in their life?
No again. There are, in fact, a few stories in the collection about women who didn't come out until they were 60 or even older. One woman told us that while she knew about her sexuality early in life, she came out for the first time right before she turned 80!
Will you'll ever run out of women to interview?
No. Although we expect the common elements in the stories will change as time goes by since the experiences of women born in the 30s will differ significantly from those born in the 40s or 50s.
Is there a cost to the woman telling her story?
No. The Project absorbs the costs, larglely through the thousands of volunteer hours contributed to the OLOHP. Funding has primarily come through personal donations, grants from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and some financial support from OLOC, Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
About the process itself…
How does the Project connect with women willing to tell their stories?
Word of mouth has been the best way to find women for the Project. Almost every old lesbian has friends who are old lesbians, and they too have friends. We also do presentations at LGBTQ centers and other events where old lesbians are likely to gather. Some outreach is done via the internet, but the personal contact has been much more effective.
What are the basic steps of the a Herstory?
Once a woman agrees to share her story, she is matched with an interviewer. Together, they set a date and place for conducting the interview. At this point, the Project provides printed information about the process which tells a bit about the women who will be working with her. This includes direct contact with the interviewer, but also those who work behind the scenes, transcribing, scanning, printing, etc. She is also given a list of suggested questions and topics to guide the interview.
We ask the woman to gather any photos or other supporting documents she'd like included in her story. We scan those items as quickly as possible and get them back to the woman. The scans and audio files then go to the OLOHP Project Manager. As soon as a transcriber is available, the audio is transcribed. The transcript is sent to the woman sharing her story and she is asked to make any corrections, deletions or additions. Once that is done, the final transcript is put together with the support documents, a title page, and a copy of the contract.
A copy of the finished Herstory is then sent to the woman who shared her story. This process, from beginning to end, may take as few as three months, or as long as a year or two, depending on how long the wait is for a transcriber, and how long it takes for the woman to do her edits.
Who conducts the interviews?
Sharing a life story for this project takes a bit of faith on the part of the story teller. The woman needs to be comfortable with the interviewer and it is helpful if she feels the interviewer can relate to her story. The OLOHP has a goal of limiting interviewing to women who are both lesbian and old, ideally in their 60s or 70s themselves. For the first decade of the Project, most of the interviews were conducted by Arden Eversmeyer. Now she has trained several other women to help in this effort.
Where are the interviews done?
Most interviews are done in the woman's home where she is likely to be the most comfortable. When an interview is arranged, we encourage the woman to sit in her favorite chair and relax. Occasionally, interviews have been done at events such as an OLOC Gathering or a women's music festival.
What are the support documents?
Most often the support documents are photos, from early life to the present. They may also include articles written by the woman, books she authored, artwork she has created, correspondences, graduation certificates, and even an occasional piece of clothing.
What does a finished Herstory look like?
Most of the Herstories are now being comb-bound into book form. Each copy contains a transcript of the interview and photocopies of any supplemental documents the woman provided. This might be a mix of photographs, graduation certificates, awards, newspaper clippings, etc. What is included is, for the most part, up to the woman since it is her story.
What happens once the interview is finished?
A printed "book" of the woman's story, accompanied by any photographs or other supporting documents she provided, goes to the woman who has shared her story. Another copy goes into the OLOHP collection. Ultimately, those stories are being transferred into the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton.
About contracts with the women…
Does the woman telling her story give her permission for its use?
Women sharing their stories sign a contract with the OLOHP. There are two versions: unconditional and conditional. The unconditional contract authorizes the OLOHP to use the interviews in ways the Project deems appropriate. With a conditional contract, the woman sharing her story is encouraged to write in any restrictions. Examples of conditions are "not to be used until after my death" and "for research purposes only." Contracts are signed at the time of the interview.
Whose stories are used in the books, newsletter, presentations and such?
The Project makes a concerted effort to abide by the terms of the contract the woman has signed. In the case of the books, and for the DVD that is currently being produced (Our Stories, Our Voices: The Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project), not only does the Project adhere to the original contract, it contacts any interviewee still living to get special permission for parts of their story to be used in those manners.
About accessing the stories…
How does the OLOHP plan to use the stories they collect?
The primary goal is twofold: 1. to let the woman sharing her story know that what she has to say is valuable, and 2. to accumulate an archive of information that will be used for research and education. To that end, the stories will all be archived at Smith College.
Is there a way to read parts of the interviews?
"How can we read the stories?" is a common question asked of the Project. Since most people aren't able to travel to Smith College to view the Herstories, we undertook the project of producing two books. The books are, essentially, condensed versions of some of the stories, relying very heavily on direct quotes from the interviews. Women whose stories are in our two books have given special permission – we won't use your story in this way without your specific permission.
The two books are: A Gift of Age: Old Lesbian Life Stories and Without Apology: Old Lesbian Life Stories. Each shares the stories of 23 women and both are available directly from us or through Amazon.com. When time allows, we hope to produce a third book.
Why aren't they all available on this website?
Our goal is to eventually have a few of them on our website. There are some that won't appear because those women have not given full permission to use their materials. Until then, be sure to look at the Passages and the Profiles.