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Thomas Kraemer Papers, 1908-2018

By Lisa Fernandez and Natalia Fernandez

Collection Overview

Title: Thomas Kraemer Papers, 1908-2018

Predominant Dates: 1960s-2010s

ID: MSS Kraemer

Primary Creator: Kraemer, Thomas Fredrick

Extent: 17.25 cubic feet. More info below.

Arrangement: The Kraemer Papers collection is divided into 6 series: Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1963-2009; Series 2: Blogs and Blog Reference Materials, 1992-2018 (Sub-Series 1: Blog, 2006-2011, Sub-Series 2: OSU Blog, 2012-2017, and Sub-Series 3: Reference Materials, 1992-2018); Series 3: Research Files, 1908-2017; Series 4: Comics, Magazines, and Books, 1969-2018 (Sub-Series 1: Comics, 1971-2008, Sub-Series 2: Magazines: 1969-2008, and Sub-Series 3: Books, 1985-2018); Series 5: Films, 1968-2018; Series 6: Hewlett-Packard, 1992-1997

Date Acquired: 00/00/2018

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

Oregon State University alumnus Thomas Kraemer helped to found the Gay Peoples Alliance, the first officially recognized gay student group at OSU, in 1976. The Kraemer Papers reflect Kraemer's decades-long research on LGBTQ+ issues. The collection includes Kraemer's blog, blog reference materials, and research files; his collection of comics, magazines, and films; some biographical materials, and a set of documents pertaining to Hewlett-Packard's LGBTQ+ related activities, policies, and trainings during the 1990s.

The contents of the folders found Series 6, regarding Hewlett-Packard, have been digitized and are available upon request.

Scope and Content Notes

At Oregon State University Kraemer helped to found the Gay Peoples Alliance, the first officially recognized gay student group at OSU, in 1976. Throughout his lifetime, Kraemer conducted research on LGBTQ+ issues. The collection includes Kraemer's blog, blog reference materials, and research files; his collection of comics, magazines, and films; and some biographical materials.

Kraemer's blogs discuss historical events within the gay community, contemporary LGBTQ+ issues, media representation, political topics, and sexual health. The OSU blog covers the development of the Pride Cultural Center, the Native American Cultural Center, and other issues that are specific to the LGBTQ+ community on the OSU campus. Thomas Kraemer's personal blog includes 1,554 individual posts starting in 2006 and ending in 2011.The OSU blog has 410 individual posts starting in 2012 and ending in 2017.

Kraemer's research files contain Bareback Journal Papers, content from Gay Today, sexual health information, writings on Jack Baker by Jack Nichols, and information about the Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation that he founded to support multi-disciplinary research at Oregon State. OSU Barometer news articles, news coverage on political topics, and research on HIV/Aids are also included in these files. This series includes 4 GB (1,307 files) of electronic records materials which are available for research in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center's Reading Room.

The comics, magazines, and films are about the gay community. They vary from comedic, erotic, artistic, socially conscious or focused on politics. The collection includes multiple editions of Men Meat Comics, POZ Magazine, and XY Magazine.

The Hewlett-Packard materials include various documents Kraemer collected during the 1990s pertaining to the company’s LGBTQ+ activities, policies, trainings, group meetings, and inter-office correspondence. This series predominantly consists of email correspondence, but also includes information pertaining to HP’s Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Employee Network (GLEN), and copies of HP’s publication Measure Magazine.

The contents of the folders found Series 6, regarding Hewlett-Packard, have been digitized and are available upon request.

Biographical / Historical Notes

Thomas Kraemer earned his BS (1977) and MS (1978) degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Oregon State University. With other students, he founded the OSU Gay Peoples Alliance in 1976, the first officially recognized gay student group at Oregon State University. He was the blog author for the Thomas Kraemer Blog and Tom's OSU Blog which have both covered a range of topics from health, relationships, sex, media and politics of the gay community. His speech at the OSU Queer History Month in 2006 discussed the history of gay student groups at OSU from 1976-2006. Kraemer was the founding benefactor of the OSU Foundation's Magnus Hirschfeld Fund for multidisciplinary research at OSU in all academic disciplines. Kraemer worked for Hewlett-Packard over three decades where he helped design HP's first portable computers and partnered with Intel to design the first Ethernet hardware necessary for connecting to the internet. Kraemer passed away in 2018.

Author: Lisa Fernandez

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 34 DVDs; 18 boxes, including 1 oversize box; 4 Gbytes 1,307 files

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: In 2006, Thomas Kraemer donated his 2006 Queer History Month Speech to the University Archives. In 2018, after Kraemer's passing, his widow Kim Kraemer donated the Kraemer Papers to the OSU Queer Archives.

Related Materials: This collection is a component of the OSU Queer Archives. Other collections related to LGBTQ+ history include the Pride Center Records (RG 236), the Queer History Research Collection, the Queer Studies Program Records (RG 278), and the Student Leadership and Involvement Records (RG 232).

Preferred Citation: Thomas Kraemer Papers (MSS Kraemer), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Processing Information:

We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement online.

The archivist-prepared description of this collection uses the phrase “Civil War” to refer to the long-standing athletic rivalry between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. A history of this athletic rivalry, and use of the phrase “Civil War” to describe it, is available online in The Origins of the "Civil War" Football Game blog post.

In June 2020, Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray announced that the term  “Civil War” will no longer be used by either university because it “represents a connection to a war fought to perpetuate slavery.”

Additionally, the term "gypsy" which is considered derogatory by many Roma people, appears in this collection. It comes from the word “Egyptian,” where many Europeans mistakenly believed the Romani came from. In 1971, at the First World Roma Congress, a majority of attendees voted to reject the use of the term “gypsy,” however some still use it to self-identify. For more information, please see our blog post.

We acknowledge the racism represented by this language and the harm it may cause our users. In order to provide historical context and to enable standardized searching and access across our collections, we have retained the original language in the collection description.

[Date of acknowledgement: November 2021 and November 2024]

Finding Aid Revision History: This finding aid supersedes an earlier finding aid for the Thomas Kraemer Speech and Blog.

Creators

Kraemer, Thomas Fredrick

People, Places, and Topics

Gay college students--Oregon--Corvallis.
Gay Peoples Alliance (Oregon State University)
Kraemer, Thomas Fredrick
Oregon Multicultural Archives
Oregon State University--Students.
University History

Forms of Material

Blogs.
Born digital.
DVDs.


Box and Folder Listing