This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Carpenter Endowment at the Mina Rees Library, an ongoing fund for the purchase of books and other materials relating to LGBTQ lives, and scholarly works on gender/sexuality.

A History of the Carpenter Endowment

In 2000, Ivor Kraft, a Hawaii-based, long-time supporter of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, made a substantive fiscal donation (in addition to having sent much appreciated boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and other local delicacies, over the years). The fund was specifically set up to purchase queer books/items, with “the binding stipulation that all such materials shall be directly relevant to the fields of lesbian and gay and gender studies, broadly defined” (CLAGS Archives, Kraft). It is a credit to Kraft’s forward thinking that he included “gender studies” in this collecting rubric, in anticipation of the groundswell for research in gender identity in the following years. Similarly, CLAGS at that time was still named the “Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies,” later changed to “LGBTQ Studies.”

Carpenter, Who?

Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), namesake of the Library’s Carpenter Endowment. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Edward_Carpenter).

Kraft conceived of the fund in the name of a 19th century poet, Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), accurately described as “a much admired and influential English author, egalitarian, social reformer, and leading advocate of sexual freedom, enlightenment, and tolerance” (CLAGS Archives, Kraft). Among his many published works, Carpenter speculated on the nature of gender and sexuality freely in “The Intermediate Sex” (1908), his pamphlet “Homogenic Love and Its Place in a Free Society (1894), as well as extended speculations on the nature of friendship, homosociality, and love.

As the LGBTQ Studies Librarian since 2020, one of my first instincts was to enhance the Library’s collection in queer theology. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find (while reading a book with the delightful title – “From Queer to Eternity: Spirituality in the Lives of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual People”) that Edward Carpenter was himself also deeply invested in religious studies/origins. In addition to interest from an historical/anthropological angle, as explored in Carpenter’s book “Pagan & Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning,” he held an innate sense that there is a spiritual dimension to the LGBTQ experience.

A Queerly Infused Library Experience

The Carpenter Endowment has greatly shaped and influenced the scope of the Mina Rees Library’s print collection, adding thousands of new titles to the shelves that would have otherwise been out of reach for purchase. Each year, we are able to expand multi-directionally, across disciplinary bounds, purchasing titles such as “Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos,” “A Political Biography of the Indonesian Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Movement,” and other infinitely interesting titles. Also check out Queer Biography, a compilation of titles relating to that subject area by Katherine Pradt, former GC librarian.

Because of the consistent infusion of queer titles to the collection, which is otherwise oriented to reflect the Graduate Center curriculum and faculty scholarship, we have a wonderfully expansive look at most, if not all subjects, through a uniquely queer lens. The Library is also newly home to the CLAGS Research Archives, available to researchers by appointment and offering a rare window into the Center’s organizational history.

For 25 years, the Mina Rees Library has been at the forefront of collecting in LGBTQ Studies, and we look forward to providing this continued experience to patrons, students, faculty and staff. For any question, large or whimsically small, relating to the topic of queer lives, kindly reach out – we’re more than happy to help, and we look forward to supporting your research in these areas.

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