About the Project

All of this started a few years ago with a casual trip to the Peoria Public Library. After all, if you want to know about local history, what better place to go? So much has been written about the River City but, as I thumbed through volume after volume, one question grew louder and louder in my mind - where is my community in all of this? From what I can tell, next to nothing has been formally documented regarding the LGBTQ+ history of the area. I decided then and there that this needed to change. 

Research and history are passions of mine (after all, I've built careers on them),  so if anyone was going to get this ball rolling, I figure it may as well be me. I fully recognize that I am just one man. While I might not be able to recover anything that has been lost to time, my hope is that with help from the community, we can help preserve a snapshot of what we currently have for the benefit of future generations.

While there is a lot that can be found digging through "the stacks," most of our history is contained in the people that lived it. One of my hopes for this website is for it to be a repository for oral history interviews and other materials needing a home. 


"Everybody has a story. And there's something to be learned from every experience."
- Oprah Winfrey

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David Ogden Stiers (1942-2018)

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Welcome!

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