Loraine Hutchins papers
Scope and Contents
The papers include correspondence, photographs, research subject files, published and unpublished writing by Hutchins and others, newspaper clippings, fliers, newsletters, journals, and periodicals. The periodical collection is especially impressive, containing extensive runs of radical feminist and feminist spirituality related periodicals and zines from the 1970s and bisexuality-themed periodicals of the 1990s. Other social justice movements--African American civil rights, cooperative housing, anti-war, anti-nuclear--of the 1960s to the 1980s are also represented. Various aspects of sexualities (feminist/lesbian/bisexual) are covered as well.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1948-2020
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1970s-1990s
Creator
- Hutchins, Loraine (Person)
- Hutchins, Adele (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for use with following restrictions on access: Loraine Hutchins' diaries are closed to all researchers until her death (boxes 29-36).
Accession 2012-S-0059, Box #14 is CLOSED due to visible mold.
Conditions Governing Use
To the extent that she owns copyright, Lorain Hutchins has assigned the copyright in her works to Smith College; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required.
For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Loraine Hutchins, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Self-proclaimed "sex radical," Loraine Hutchins was born in Washington, DC, the daughter of Thomas Jackson Hutchins and Adele Loraine Reese Hutchins. She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1966. She then went on to Shimer College, a small liberal arts college then in Mount Carroll, Illinois, where she earned her BS in 1970. According to Hutchins' Web site, "As a white teenager growing up in the suburbs of Washington DC, I learned that social justice and equality are all that really matter, and that erotic justice, economic justice, and environmental justice are all connected. But I could not speak this insight aloud for many years." After college, Hutchins spent several years working in the DC-area, first for a juvenile justice agency and then in a series of fundraising or management positions as a consultant. Her work included fundraising for a Department of Education initiative, "Hidden from History;" with a focus on US women's labor history, one of the documentaries produced was "With Babies and Banners."
By 1990, Hutchins had come to find her true calling, as a leading advocate for the Bisexuality Rights Movement. In 1990, she co-founded BiNet USA, a national bisexual alliance, and served on its Board of Directors for its first several years. In 1991, she co-founded a local educational, support and direct action group in DC, the Alliance of Multi-Cultural Bisexuals (AMBi). That same year, Hutchins also co-edited, Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, a "groundbreaking anthology [which] soon became a primer for the LGBT movement." In 2001, she earned her PhD in Cultural Studies at the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati; Hutchins disseration is entitled, "Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary US Women's Sacred Sexuality Trends and Traditions." Since 2004 she has taught as an adjunct at two Maryland colleges, Towson University and Montgomery College, where she serves as the Vice President of SEIU Local 500, a recently-formed union for adjunct faculty. Most of all, Hutchins has dedicated her life to making the connections between sexuality and spirituality a reality.
Extent
38.354 linear feet (36 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Author; Bisexual rights activist; Professor, Women's Studies; Sex coach. Papers include correspondence, photographs, research subject files, published and unpublished writing by Hutchins and others, newspaper clippings, fliers, newsletters, and periodicals. The periodicals include extensive runs of radical feminist and feminist spirituality related periodicals and zines from the 1970s and bisexuality-themed periodicals of the 1990s. Other social justice movements--African American civil rights, cooperative housing, anti- war, anti-nuclear--of the 1960s to the 1980s are also represented. Various aspects of sexualities (feminist/lesbian/bisexual) are covered as well.
Arrangement
This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Loraine Hutchins donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection in 2012. Additional material was donated by Hutchins in 2020.
Processing Information
Accessioned by Kathleen Banks Nutter in 2012. Four audiotapes from Judith Davis were delivered along with the Hutchins materials and subsequently combined with material sent directly from Davis as Accession 2014-S-0006 of the Religion collection (SSC-MS-00408).
Accession 2020-S-0009 was accessioned by Althea Topek in 2020.
Genre / Form
- Books
- DVD-Video discs
- Financial records
- Leaflets
- Newsletters
- Pamphlets
- Theses
- Videotapes
- Yearbooks
- clippings
- correspondence
- diaries
- notebooks
Topical
- Address books
- Antinuclear movement -- United States
- Appointment books
- Authors, American
- Bisexuality
- Civil rights -- United States -- 20th century
- Civil rights -- United States -- 20th century
- Diaries -- Women authors
- Feminism -- Periodicals
- Feminism -- Periodicals
- Feminist spirituality
- Gay liberation movement
- Greeting cards
- LGBTQ people -- Periodicals
- Lesbian activists
- Lesbian and queer women
- Lesbian community
- Lesbianism -- Periodicals
- Manuscripts
- Newspapers
- Periodicals
- Publications
- Reproductive and sexual health
- Research
- Sex instruction
- Social justice -- United States
- Sound recordings
- Spirituality -- United States
- Transgender people -- United States -- Social conditions
- Women and religion
- Women in higher education
- Women's periodicals, American
- Women's studies -- 20th century
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Loraine Hutchins papers
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:22-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2018-10-10: Finding aid updated with link to creator's book collection, at her request. Re-published with current notes, etc.
- 2018-12-04: Archived website added
- 2020-01-15: Added Accession 2020-S-0009
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
