The Suzan Daniel Fund has the most important source collection for post war gay & lesbian life in our country.

At this time we manage around 400 meters of materials that are being kept by our partner organizations. Our collection can be consulted with these organizations every working day of the week. The addresses and opening hours can be found on their respective websites.

For a better service we advise you to let us know beforehand exactly what you are looking for. We will gladly set you on the road.

Documents can be consulted on location only and or not lent out.

Due to our limited means we don’t do commissioned searches for you.

The collection consists of two main parts : archives and documentation.

 
Archives

These are the documents that document the activities of people, groups, organisations and companies. One can get an accurate idea of what is present in our collection by going through the inventory list that is made up. Such a list gives a detailed account of what is present in the archive of a person or an organisation.

Some of our archival holdings already have such an inventory list, some haven’t as yet. One can find an overview of those that do on the website of Archiefbank, a register of private archives. [link Archiefbank]

Simply type ‘Fonds Suzan Daniel’ in the search bar to obtain the whole list. You can also immediately see where the holdings are stored and what the opening hours are.

For clarity : you do need a permission in writing from the Suzan Daniel Fund if you want to consult these archival holdings. And due to privacy reasons some sources won’t be consultable for a long(er) time.

The 20 meters long archival holdings of the Holebifederatie form right now the heart of our collection. Anybody interested in the social situation of gays and lesbians in Belgium after the word can not go passed these.

But there is more of course ! A very careful letter from a Canadian soldier dated 1945. A file on the short film “Kampvuur” of the film maker Bavo Defurne. A letter from Tom of Finland. The opening speech of the very first meeting of the Centre Culturel Belge in 1954. A recording  of the radio program ‘Un vent p.d. souffle sur le ghetto” on radio (Louvain-)la-Neuve from 1980.  Diaries and love letters. The very first AIDS prevention leaflets. It can all be found with us.

Documentation

There are periodicals, books, posters, memorabilia & ephemera, flyers, brochures, T-shirts, gadgets, stickers, badges, matchbook covers, condom packages and other safe sex promotion materials.

An overview of catalogued periodicals, books and articles can be found at 'links'

Here you can check if we have a particular book or periodical (and what volumes) by simply typing in the title. In order to do this you first choose the databse you want to consult : full library catalogue, books, serials or articles. You can also search more specifically within our own collection by filling out ‘fsd’ within the field “free search”.

More than 800 local, national and international periodicals are present. And about 4000 articles.

One can find here for example ‘The beginner’s guide to cruising’ from 1964. An issue of the newsletter of the Liege lesbian group ‘Les Cyclades’ from 1988 or the complete collection of the French magazine Gai Pied hebdo. Or the article ‘Homo wast witter : homoseksualiteit in de reclame’. [Gay washes whiter : homosexuality in commercials.]

You can find a selection of our collection of posters (surpassing thousand pieces already) in the Gallery.