Information for researchers

Details on how to find and use materials from the Tretter Collection, and what to expect on your visit.

Finding materials in our collections

Finding aids

Detailed descriptions of archival holdings––manuscripts, audiovisual materials, ephemera, &tc. Browse or search all of our finding aids in the Tretter Collection's finding aid portal. Instructions for using our finding aids can be found here.

Subject guides

Guides to materials in the Tretter Collection by subject.

Twin Cities-based LGBTQ2 Periodicals (1960s-present)
Policing and prisons
Holdings related to the Twin Cities-based HIV/AIDS service organization The Aliveness Project
Cold War-era LGBTQ travel directories in the Tretter Collection
Homophile publications
German-language publications held in the Tretter Collection

Back to top

Requesting materials

Our collections are non-circulating. Materials are housed in secure, non-browsing stacks and are retrieved for users upon request. Some of our collections are stored in an off-site facility, requiring extra time to retrieve materials for patron use in our reading room.

Regrettably, due to limited staffing, we cannot accomodate walk-in researchers. We request that you contact the Tretter staff at least a week in advance of any planned visits to the Archives (if possible) to make an appointment and to request materials. Send an email to tretter@umn.edu with your request, and please include in your message:

  • The date & time you wish to come, and
  • A list of the specific boxes from the collection you wish to see. (Consult our finding aids and catalog records––accessible via the links above––to locate specific materials of interest.)

Feel free to contact us if you need assistance locating or selecting materials to request.

Back to top

Visiting the reading room

The Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies strives to make its collections open to all. Researchers do not need to have an affiliation with the University of Minnesota, or any institution, to use our collections.

Researchers view requested materials in the central Archives and Special Collections reading room in the Wallin Center, located on the ground floor of the Elmer L. Andersen Library, on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. Policies and procedures for using our materials in the reading room are viewable here. Additional information for researchers planning a visit to the Archives and Special Collections is viewable here.

Visiting researchers may apply for for an Elmer L. Andersen Research Scholarship to support use of our materials.

Back to top

Accessibility

All gender restrooms

There are no all-gender restrooms in the Elmer L. Andersen Library. The nearest all-gender restrooms are:

  • Mondale Hall, 4th floor, rooms 461 and 462
  • Social Sciences Building, first floor, rooms 129, 136, and 177
  • Heller Hall, rooms 155, 555, 755, 919, 1019, 119, and 1219

For more information, explore the map of all publicly accessible all-gender restrooms on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.

Accessible entrances to the building

  • First floor on the south and northwest sides
  • Ground (street) level on the north side

Back to top

Using materials from our collections

Information about making reproductions of—or citing—materials from our collections, as well as general information about copyright and permissions is viewable here.

Back to top