National Lottery Heritage Grants £10,000 to £250,000
The bookseller, gay rights campaigner and founder of London’s renowned Gay’s the Word bookshop left the collection to the library on his death in 2019.
Over many decades, Cutbill collected approximately 30,000 items of LGBTQ+ relevance dating from 1760s to the 2010s, including literature, social science and history, alongside letters, notes, pamphlets and newspaper cuttings.
It is one of the largest and most significant archives of printed queer literature in the UK and the largest known personal collection of English-language LGBTQ+ materials in the world.
Our funding is supporting two cataloguers and one intern to catalogue the full collection and digitise highlights for online access.
Senate House Library will also host an exhibition on the collection alongside an extensive programme of public events. Thanks to the project, visitors will be able to study, interpret, enjoy and reflect on the rich and varied collection for generations to come.
Catriona Cannon, Librarian and Programme Director for the Library Transformation Programme at Senate House Library, said the award “will enable us to share the radical stories of how these materials were created, circulated and collected, and work with communities and individuals to pool our knowledge and increase our understanding of these treasures and their role in our society.”
See how our funding is helping protect and celebrate LGBTQ+ stories across the UK.
