Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection
Tretter Collection
Jean-Nickolaus Tretter has collected Pride Guides, community newspapers, activist buttons, and other items of GLBT interest since his return from serving as a linguist in the Vietnam War. Already involved with F.R.E.E., the Twin Cities Pride Festival, and other community organizations by 1972, Tretter’s interest in GLBT history and culture intensified at the University of Minnesota. As a student from 1973-76, Tretter unsuccessfully attempted to study Gay and Lesbian Anthropology. At the time, University staff assured him that no such thing existed. | Tretter's Collection at Elmer Andersen Library. Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies.
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Jean-Nickolaus Tretter (seated) and Jim Kepner at the One Archives in Los Angeles. Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection. |
Intent on proving them wrong, Tretter dropped out and studied the history of queer life on his own. His collection habits inspired word-of-mouth publicity and, in 1982, it led to a chance meeting with none other than Jim Kepner, founder of the One Archives in Los Angeles.
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After lengthy negotiations—and with support of the new library’s namesake, former Governor Elmer L. Anderson—the Tretter Collection moved into Andersen Library’s climate-controlled caverns. These caverns were dug into the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and are some of the finest archival storage spaces in the world.
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Photograph of Jean-Nickolaus Tretter in his apartment as his collection moved to Elmer Anderson Library, 1999. Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection. |
This entry is part of:
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-2010)
The information used in this page is available at the Tretter Collection's website: http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/tretter.phtml
Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)