His exhibit will be aimed at the audiences of today, but the collection is meant to last in perpetuity for whatever our society looks like in a century. Marcus said it’s important that Colorado presents this history of struggle with open eyes and celebrates the progress LGBTQ+ people have made in recent decades. “If not for the work these people put in … LGBT people would not enjoy the protections we have in Colorado.” “So many leaders in our community rose to the occasion,” he said. One of those people called to action was Tim Gill, namesake of the organization supporting Marcus’ new role.īrad Clark, the Gill Foundation’s president and CEO, said Amendment 2 galvanized people like Gill. Jared Polis wore on his campaign trail were among the items Marcus carted out to show us this week. Denverite is still looking for people who knew him. Tom Parson, a local printmaking guru, said he knew Oliner as a scholar of a wide range of topics (including printmaking), but was unaware of his pursuits in cataloguing LGBTQ+ history. It was a huge help to Marcus’ work, but the story of who Oliner was and why his research never reached the public eye is still a mystery. In his search, he discovered a dossier of objects and records collected by Stan Oliner.
Marcus also discovered he wasn’t the only state archive employee to try to bring this history to light. “There’s actual pictures of him and it puts a face on it.” And now we have a piece of Mickey and anybody can come, you know, meet him,” Marcus said. “If it wasn’t for us, he’d be lost forever. McShan had AIDS, and his letters show an urgency to find a good steward for his collection of bar matchbooks, bathhouse membership cards, postcards and more. One folder in the museum’s possession came from Mickey McShan, a Texan who moved to Denver before his apparent death sometime around 1990. “It’s great that people are actually going to get to see it now, and I’ve found stuff that has surprised a lot of people – even me – that goes back to the 1950s.”Ī folder titled "Photos by Phil Nash," the first salaried organizer of the Gay Community Center of Colorado, which became The Center on Colfax. “For me personally, to be able to continue this, is incredible,” he said, surrounded by boxes in History Colorado’s library. “The specialty curator positions help us achieve that in ways that we, as a 140-year-old institution, have not yet fully realized.” Marcus said he’s excited to discover hidden treasures in the state archive and search Colorado for more unheard stories. “We believe that our collection needs to reflect the rich diversity of the state of Colorado.” she told Denverite. Instead, it was his passion for the subject that he said made him the right candidate.ĭawn DiPrince, History Colorado’s chief operating officer, said giving curators specific agency to flesh out alternate perspectives means present and future generations have a chance to appreciate historic diversity that otherwise may be forgotten. Marcus said he identifies as gay, but he doesn’t think it’s a necessary qualification for his job. “History is known for keeping the history of white men,” he said.
It meant interpretations of collections like History Colorado’s tended to focus on people who looked like those in power.
For a long time, white, straight men held the sole power to write the stories of America’s past. Marcus said positions like his help address a historic problem for historic archives. LGBTQ+ Curator Aaron Marcus and History Colorado Chief Operating Officer Dawn DiPrince sort through boxes of history inside the state archive's research library, Feb. A curator of architecture has already joined the team. They are set to hire associate curators of oral history and Hispanic, Latino and Chicano history in the coming months. The new position is one of several as History Colorado works to broaden representation within the state’s official historic archive. He actually started work last October, but his hire was under wraps until this week. History Colorado announced Wednesday that they hired Marcus as their first-ever associate curator of LGBTQ history, a two-year position funded in partnership with the Gill Foundation that will culminate in an exhibit showcasing his findings. In 2015, he almost had the chance to curate an exhibit at History Colorado, where he’d worked as an intern since 2008, but a tough financial year and ensuing layoffs at the institution forced him to scrap the project.
He’s written scholarly articles and worked on documentaries about the subject. Historian Aaron Marcus has thought about telling the story of Colorado’s queer communities since he was in graduate school.