Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the I'm From Driftwood Records

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.1503
Creators:
Manske, Nathan
Dates:
2009-2019, undated
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
2 Cubic feet
5 boxes
Repository:
Oral histories (transcripts) taken from LGBTQ identifying persons over a fifty state I'm From Driftwood story tour. Records include oral histories, photographs, tour records, correspondence, and ephemera from the tour crew and tour inteviewees.

Content Description

Content Description
Records documenting the I'm From Driftwood project, transcripts of oral histories collected from persons identifying as LGBTQ. Histories were taken from persons in all fifty U.S. states over the course of a five month (September 2010-January 2011) story tour. Oral histories are arranged in the order in which the state was visited. The records include transcripts of interviews with the Driftwood story crew focusing on their memories of the joys and challenges of the tour state by state. There are photographs taken in each state of the tour of persons, places, and the story tour's signature pink cowboy boots. These boots were used for donation recepticles during fundraising visits to local LGBTQ community centers, bars, and student unions.
The records document an amazing oydessy of the Driftwood crew. Not only do the transcripts of persons interviewed include the sometimes poignant history of that particular person, but interviews with the Driftwood crew themselves illustrate the sometimes emotional, frustrating, yet rewarding, journey they were taking to capture these interviews. The records include pen and ink, hand drawn postcards by artist Nicholas Manske, driver for the tour, to his then fiance, Summer Dinh. The postcards feature Manske's drawing of a signature site within any given state. The postcards give yet one more human story to the many documented in these records.
Files from some states only include the crew transcripts, there were either no stories gathered in that state or for privacy various reasons they are not included in these records.

Arrangement

Arrangement
These records are arranged in three series.
Series 1, Oral Histories, Transcriptions, and Notes, 2010 September 11-2011 January 9
Series 2, Project Records and Ephemera, 2010-2011, undated
Series 3, Photographs and Hand Drawn Postcards, 2010-2011, undated

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
From the book jacket,
i'm from driftwood; True Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Stories from All Over the World
, edited by Nathan Manske. "Since March 2009, ImFromDrifwood.com has collected true lesbian, gay, bisexual and tansgender stories from every corner of the globe to help LGBT youth realize they're not alone. The hundreds of written stories range from the furtive life of a gay man living in Indiana during the ultra conservative and unforgiving 1950s, to clandestine underground gay-straight alliance in present day Indonesia. While some stories recount bitter memories of violence, hatred, and introlerance, most are a testament to the most common of human emotions-optimism, love, honesty and hope. Together, these stories offer rare insight and lend an indisputable humanity to the lives of LGBT people everywhere, giving people young and old the world over a sense of community and a reassurance that they are not alone."
The crew for the story tour consisted of: Nathan Manske, founder of I'm From Driftwood organization; Marquise Lee, creator of the video stories, videographer and editor; Nicholas "Nick" Manske, brother of Nathan and driver for the tour; Desiree Vester, "Mistress of Logistics"; Santiago Garza, video intern; and Troy Chatterton, logistics volunteer. These records concentrate solely on the experiences and oral histories gathered by Manske and his crew on their tour of the United States during 2009-2010.

Administration

Author
Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archivist
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection donated by I'm From Driftwood organization through Nathan Manske, Executive Director, February 2020.
Processing Information
Processed by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archivist, 2020.
Separated Materials
The story tour's pair of pink cowboy boots was collected by the Division of Work and Industry, NMAH, accession number: 2020.0090.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Releases for interviews are housed in the Archives Center's control file for this collection.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.
Preferred Citation
I'm From Driftwood Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Gay bars Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gay and lesbian studies Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gay rights Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gay youth Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lesbian and gay experience Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
LGBTQ+ Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oral history -- 2010-2020 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Love letters Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Postcards -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Social history Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketches Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tourist trade -- Postcards Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transcripts -- 20th century Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Travel -- Photographs Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
I'm From Driftwood Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Manske, Nicholas Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lee, Marquise Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vester, Desiree Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Garza, Santiago Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chatterton, Troy Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dinh, Summer Z. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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