University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Magazine 2018 Fall Libraries Magazine | Page 20
Nothing To Hide
UW–Madison Archives Awarded Grant to Fully Digitize 650 Unique,
At-Risk Videotapes Highlighting LGBTQ+ Issues
By Natasha Veeser
T
he UW–Madison Archives was recently
awarded a $12,000 grant from the Evjue
Foundation to fully digitize 650 unique and
at-risk videotapes in the Nothing to Hide
archive. Created by David Runyon in 1981,
Nothing to Hide was a weekly television
program on WYOU that focused on LGBTQ+
issues. The program ran for a remarkable 20
years until Runyon’s death in 2001. Preserved
on now fragile and decaying magnetic media
(U-Matic and VHS tape), there is an urgent
need to digitize the recordings before their
content is lost.
“We are so grateful to the Evjue Foundation
for their support of this important project,”
said David Pavelich, Director of Special
Collections and Archives at UW–Madison.
“Libraries and archives cannot possibly
achieve all of our goals without investments
like this. We’re incredibly fortunate to have
the Evjue Foundation this close to home!”
In 1981, Runyon split from the local WYOU
television program Glad to be Gay to create
his own weekly program, Nothing to Hide.
The new program focused on LGBTQ+ issues,
capturing local and national events and
featuring both local and national figures.
Internationally known writers, politicians,
and activists featured on the show included
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Angela Davis, Howard
Zinn, and Toni Morrison, among others. The
many local and regional luminaries who
appeared on the program included George
20 | LIBRARIES Fall 2018
Mosse, Tammy Baldwin, and Dick Wagner.
Nothing to Hide created a unique video
record of historically important events in
Wisconsin and United States history. For
example, Runyon’s program documented
LGBT civil rights marches in Washington,
D.C., in 1979, 1987, and 1993 and here in
Madison in 1989, 1991, and 1996. The program
recorded and broadcast documentary
footage of Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus’s
statement at the signing of AB70, which made
Wisconsin the first state in the nation to ban
discrimination based on sexual orientation
in employment, housing, and public
accommodation.
Another program documented the signing
of the consenting adults law on May 5, 1983,
which repealed the earlier “sexual perversion”
law.
A wide variety of subjects were covered
in the 20 years of Nothing to Hide’s
programming. Coverage of the AIDS epidemic,
for instance, began in 1983 and continued
into the 1990s. Runyon produced episodes
on subjects such as gays in the military,
coming out, and community health issues.
The program featured performances by local
and national gay and lesbian theater and
musical groups such as the Lionheart Gay
Theater (Chicago) and the New Orleans Gay
Men’s Chorus. Several conferences—including
the Black and White Men Together National
Conference and the Annual International
Gathering of Gay and Lesbian Elected and
Appointed Officials—were filmed from the
late 1980s into the 1990s.
The Nothing to Hide archive came to the
UW–Madison Libraries in 2009 through the
energy and advocacy of local faculty, students,
and community members, who recognized
the incredible value of the collection
and realized the urgent need to preserve
it. The primary source of these archival
videotapes was WYOU, which had retained
800 recordings of the program. Local LGBT
advocacy center OutReach owned another 50
tapes, which were deposited there by Runyon.
“This digitization project illustrates many
of the objectives of modern archives,” said
Pavelich. “We are no longer simply asked to
archive paper in boxes, but to rescue and
provide access to various forms of obsolete
media from magnetic videotape (which
decays quickly) to word processing files
created on long-dead operating systems. And
we are committed to gathering and sharing
the full story of our diverse community, not
just the story of one dominant viewpoint. Our
archivists and librarians are working hard—
every day—to secure the puzzle pieces of our
history.”
There is a high risk of loss for this
important collection. The National Archives
estimates that the life span for magnetic
videotape (without loss) is between 10 and
50 years. Because of the unstable medium,
the video recordings in the Nothing to Hide
archive are currently inacces sible to users.
Once accessible, however, the diversity of
content will make the collection meaningful
to a broad spectrum of users, from
community members to academics.
“Grants like this allow us to make one of
a kind collections such as Nothing to Hide,
which was at great risk from decay and
deterioration, available for use in teaching
and research for generations to come,” said
Doug Way, Associate University Librarian for
Collections and Research Services.
“
Libraries and archives
cannot possibly achieve
all of our goals without
investments like this.
We’re incredibly fortunate
to have the Evjue
Foundation this close to
home!
”
David Pavelich
University of Wisconsin–Madison | 21