Aug 18, 2022 - Sale 2613

Sale 2613 - Lot 216

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

TAVERN GUILD OF SAN FRANCISCO


Archive of the Guild's membership mailings, plus a folder of their financial records from 1971-1972.
Approximately 500 pages in 3 binders and a folder; condition generally strong. San Francisco, CA, 1964-1993.

The Tavern Guild was founded in 1962 as the first LGBTQ business association in the United States, uniting the owners of San Francisco's gay bars against police raids, supporting unemployed members, and staging an annual Beaux Arts Ball. They also raised money for a variety of causes within the LGBTQ community and beyond.

The bulk of this lot consists of the Guild's mailings to members from 1971 to 1993, most of them photocopies of typescripts on approximately 400 letter-sized sheets. They include the formal minutes of general membership meetings (often containing lists of unemployed members), circular letters to the membership, newsletters, committee and treasurer reports, election ballots, membership lists, and more. A few records from the 1960s are present, including 4 financial statements dated 1964 to 1966, a 3-page history titled "The Tavern Guild: A Record of Accomplishment," and a copy of the Guild's constitution is stamped "Jul 1 1969." The bulk of the records begin in 1971 and are more or less continuous through 1993. Condition is generally strong.

Also included is a folder of the Guild's original financial records dated 1971-1972, more than 125 items in a variety of sizes, consisting mostly of invoices and memoranda for regular expenses: printing of bar calendars and yearbooks, dues, event tickets and catering expenses, often stapled with register receipts or other related documents. Individual businesses are often named. A 19 April 1972 memorandum notes the deposit of a $1,000 "returned bail check." A sign-up sheet from the Guild's 27 July 1971 meeting includes 78 signatures with their bar affilation.