The Horrmann Library is the home of a unique collection of over 2,000 titles on LGTBQ+ topics, both fiction and non-fiction, known as the Pride Collection. Created by the Pride Center of Staten Island, it is one of the largest such collections in the United States.
“The Pride Center was relocating to a new space, and it no longer had room to house these books at their headquarters,” explained Horrmann Library director Dennis Schaub. “Their operations director, Marcy Carr, reached out to Wagner College history professor Lori Weintrob, who then connected Marcy with the library.”
“Many of the books in the Pride Collection are classics and critical texts documenting the emergence of the LGBTQ+ movement,” said Weintrob, who is codirector of the college’s Holocaust Center. “A number of these texts dealt with the persecution of gays in the Holocaust and the emergence of the pink triangle as a symbol of the movement.
“The Wagner College Holocaust Center was honored to work with Daniel Perkins of the Horrmann Library to assist in hiring a student intern, Bryce Palmyra, to catalog these books and highlight particularly important works.”
Palmyra created an online library research guide to the Pride Collection that serves as a starting point for further research on LGTBQIA+ issues and topics.
The Pride Collection is housed on the main floor of the Horrmann Library, near the reference area. If you visit the library, look for the rainbow-colored “Pride Collection” signs. All titles in the collection are searchable in the library’s online catalog and search engine.
