Lambda Archives Year in Review 2025
By Nicole Verdes
Dear Friends,
As we start 2026, we’re filled with gratitude for the incredible year we shared at Lambda Archives of San Diego in 2025. Thanks to supporters and the community, we had a remarkable year of growth and impact and we can’t wait to continue this work as we begin a new year.
2025: A Year of Connection and Preservation
This year, Lambda Archives served our community in powerful ways:
We welcomed 13 researchers through our doors, supporting 39 research appointments that helped people connect with their history and identity. We hosted class visits from USD and City College, introducing students to the rich tapestry of LGBTQ+ history in our binational region. We also conducted 5 Walking Tours of LGBTQ+ History, bringing our community’s stories to life on the very streets where they happened—connecting past and present in meaningful ways.
Our Community Historian in Residence program brought Dr. TJ Tallie to San Diego for our “Whose World? Whose Home?” series, exploring the intersections of Black and queer community histories. Through public lectures, workshops, and community conversations, Dr. Tallie helped us examine how Black queer and trans people have shaped our understanding of home, belonging, and resistance across generations.
Our volunteer program flourished with 17 dedicated volunteers and 8 archival interns who helped us process, preserve, and share our community’s stories. Behind the scenes, our archival work was extraordinary. We accessioned 28 new collections, digitized 3,704 objects, deframed over 200 items for proper preservation, and cataloged between 450-500 books for our library. Each number represents someone’s story—a life lived, a moment preserved, a memory protected for future generations.
Our Mission Continues
As the only dedicated LGBTQ+ archives serving the San Diego-Tijuana binational region, Lambda Archives remains committed to preserving, protecting, and sharing our community’s stories. In a time when LGBTQ+ history faces ongoing threats of erasure, this work has never been more important.
We’re grateful for this community’s continued support and look forward to another year of connecting people with their history, training the next generation of archivists, and ensuring that LGBTQ+ stories are never forgotten.