Foster Gunnison Jr. (1925–1994) was an American

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical th ...

activist who collected a substantial archive of LGBT history and activism in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Following Gunnison's death, his family donated the archive to the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

's Archives and Special Collections. Born in 1925 in the upscale suburb of

Bronxville Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Gunnison came from a privileged background. His father, Foster Gunnison Sr, was a founder of the

prefabricated home Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. ...

s industry in the United States. Gunnison Jr. enrolled in Haverford College and transferred to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, graduating in 1949. He moved to Connecticut in 1955 to attend

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, where he earned master's degrees in psychology and philosophy. Gunnison joined the

Mattachine Society The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection ...

in 1964. From 1965 to 1969, he collected the office and conference records of the

North American Conference of Homophile Organizations The North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO, pronounced "Nay-Ko") was an umbrella organization for a number of homophile organizations. Founded in 1966, the goal of NACHO was to expand coordination among homophile organizations t ...

(NACHO) and the

Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) was established in January 1962 in Philadelphia, to facilitate cooperation between homophile organizations and outside administrations. Its formative membership included the Mattachine Society chapters in N ...

(ERCHO). Other collection highlights included the papers of

Morris Kight Morris Kight (November 19, 1919January 19, 2003) was an American gay rights pioneer and peace activist. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States. Biography Early life Kig ...

and of the

Barbershop Harmony Society The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop ...

, along with railroad memorabilia, posters, serials, and his own personal correspondence. Gunnison founded his own organization, the Institute for Social Ethics, which he described as a "libertarian-oriented research facility and think tank for controversial social issues." He published the pamphlet ''An Introduction to the Homophile Movement'' (1967). Starting in the 1970s, Gunnison also became interested in smokers' rights, founding the American Puffer Alliance in 1984. Gunnison died of a heart attack in January 1994 in Hartford. He was 68 years old.

References

External links

Foster Gunnison Jr. Papers
- University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnison, Foster Jr. 1925 births 1994 deaths LGBT rights activists from the United States People from Bronxville, New York American civil rights activists LGBT people from New York (state) Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni Columbia University alumni American book and manuscript collectors 20th-century LGBT people