The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives

The ArQuives is one of the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archives in the world and the only archive in Canada with a mandate to collect at a national level. Founded out of The Body Politic newspaper collection in 1973, its mandate is to safeguard the LGBTQ2+ history of Canada. The archives formally incorporated in 1980 and following a legal challenge was granted charitable status in 1981. Today, The ArQuives preserves a wide range of material including personal and organizational papers, books, monographs, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, periodicals, artifacts (like buttons, board games, t-shirts, and banners), and other reference material.