Bruce Johnson Papers

Collection

Identifier: 1996-10

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Bruce Johnson’s collection is comprised of research papers from his master’s thesis at Northwestern, notes from early ACT-UP precursor meetings, civil disobedience ACT-UP files for a 1989 demonstration, ACT-UP ephemera including stickers and posters, and HIV-related education materials and periodicals. His collection also has some scattered inclusions of materials from the leather community in the late-80s, early-90s.

Dates

1983 - 2000
Majority of material found within 1983 - 1995

Conditions Governing Access

No donor restriction noted. One archivist-weeded folder with personal identifying membership information -- restricted: 1.15 “ACT UP Civil Disobedience Participants 1989?” [*Archivist note written on folder: “weeded 03-30-00”]

Biographical / Historical

Heavily connected to ACT-UP Chicago, as is evidenced by his papers, Johnson was an active AIDS advocate from the 80s onward. Documented by his collection, he participated in, and had organizational records of, civil disobedience demonstrations that took place in Chicago in the late 80s.

Extent

1 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into several archivist-organized folders by content and document type, in addition to several folders already having been processed and organized (see; “Original Order Folders”). The latter group of folders has less internal organization than the former. Within each archivist-organized folder, the documents are (mostly, and to the best of ability) further organized from oldest to youngest, with undated documents included at the end.

Physical Location

C5A (Row C, Bay 5, Shelf A)

Provenance

The collection was donated by Bruce Johnson on April 14th, 1996 with its condition listed by the consulting archivist, Diane Shannon, as “mostly fair.” Although, it was noted that some items were “really bent & torn.”