Digital Collections: Library of Congress Launches Digitized Collection of National AIDS Memorial Quilt Records

From the Library of Congress:

The Library of Congress has released a groundbreaking online collection of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt Records, making one of the most poignant symbols of the AIDS epidemic in the United States available to a global audience. As the largest communal art project in the world, the AIDS Memorial Quilt honors the lives of all Americans who have died of AIDS since 1981, when the disease was first identified.

Released to coincide with World AIDS Day commemorations, the newly digitized collection offers a unique window into the deeply personal stories behind the 55-ton quilt and its panels. The digitized collection, totaling more than 125,000 items, includes letters, diaries, photographs and other materials documenting the lives of those represented in the Quilt.

The digitized archive is now reunited online with the communal folk art of the quilt panels. Together, these digitized collections will be a boon for researchers, families of AIDS victims, policymakers, and more. While the Quilt is housed at the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco, its voluminous records have been entrusted to the American Folklife Center at the Library since 2019.

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Digitization of the archive was made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation, which provided core funding for the Library’s “For the People: Fund for Powering Knowledge,” designed to connect Americans with important social movements and showcase how they shape the fabric of American life and government.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt Records, totaling over 200,000 items, offer an intimate look at the victims’ lives through such artifacts as photos, manuscript letters, diaries, greeting cards, notebooks, tributes, obituaries, epitaphs, pamphlets, fabric swatches, original artwork and so much more. More than half the collection has now been digitized, allowing the general public to engage with and reflect on this important piece of history.

Learn More, Read the Complete LC Announcement

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