IHLIA is one of the largest LGBTQ+ archives in the world, holding around a hundred thousand documents, images and objects. It sits on the third floor of the OBA Oosterdok, the main public library building behind Centraal Station, and has been there since 2007.
The collection is the serious kind, running from movement papers and periodicals to badges, t-shirts, nightlife ephemera and old advertisements. Part of it is digitised and online. The rare material is consultable on site only and never lent out, and requesting something takes anything from a few days to a week, so a research visit needs planning ahead.
What needs no planning is the IHLIA-plein, the open floor space with rotating exhibitions and a book section. It is free, needs no reservation, and is open whenever the library is. Admission to all of it costs nothing.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
