ONE Institute / International Gay & Lesbian Archives (IGLA)

Founded in 1952, ONE Incorporated initially focused on publishing ONE Magazine, the first major widely distributed LGBT periodical in the United States. The Los Angeles postal authorities charged ONE Inc. with obscenity, and ONE fought the charges in court. In 1958 the Supreme Court sided with ONE in One, Inc. v. Olesen. While the case was in the courts, ONE’s leaders started the first gay studies program in the country, and in 1958 they launched the scholarly journal ONE Institute Quarterly of Homophile Studies. At the same time, homophile activist and ONE magazine contributor Jim Kepner was collecting material related to LGBTQ history. His collection grew under a series of names: the Western Gay Archives, the National Gay Archives, and the International Gay and Lesbian Archives. In 1994, Kepner’s archives merged with the ONE Institute. Now located in the University Park neighborhood, the ONE Archives at USC is the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world, housing over two million items. Scholars and community members use it to research the Lesbian Legacy Collection and other collections about lesbians and queer women.