For LGBTQ+ Americans, 1976 was a time of both great progress and continued injustices. Pennsylvania governor Milton Shapp’s executive order outlawing discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the state executive branch and his establishment of an advisory Council for Sexual Minorities in 1976, were firsts of their kind in the US. But in the same year, the United States Supreme Court, in a summary affirmation, upheld Virginia’s right to ban sex between consenting gay men. Anita Bryant’s famous anti-gay discrimination campaign in Florida and other right-wing attacks on our community were not long to follow. In Philadelphia, several LGBTQ+ organizations were founded in 1976, including the Gay Democratic Caucus (the first gay political organization in the city), the Philadelphia Gay News, and the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia (today’s William Way LGBT Community Center). They joined a plethora of existing organizations which had formed in the early 1970s to secure equal rights for our community. Materials from 1976, including evidence of LGBTQ+ Philadelphians participating in Bicentennial or counter-Bicentennial events, are available for research in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at William Way LGBT Community Center.

The William Way LGBT Community Center will act as a research and display institution for Radical Americana!

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The Museum for Art in Wood engages, educates, and inspires the public through the exhibition, collection, and interpretation of contemporary art in wood.

The Museum of Art in Wood wll act an an exhibiting site, dispalying the work of BA Harrington. 

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See "BA Harrington: Suite Américaine" at the Museum for Art in Wood on February 2026 – May 2026!

Artist BA Harrington’s work reclaims the iconic furniture forms from the realm, or “place” of male production. The sculptural work in Suite Américaine references three iconic early American furniture forms: a dowry chest, a lady’s writing desk, and a lady’s worktable. The exhibition presents the American mindset as a psychological “place” in which ideas around gender and identity were historically constructed and are currently navigated and confronted. Through a revisionist lens, Harrington interprets the original forms as proto-feminist furniture in their capacity to facilitate feminine agency and uses them to reflect on shifting ideologies around gender and identity.

Inspiration for today’s creativity can be found in objects from the past!

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library is an historic mansion featuring one of the most significant collections of American decorative arts in the world. These objects and our library collections help us broadly understand the artistic, cultural, social, and intellectual history of the Americas and everyday Americans in a global context from the 17th to 20th centuries. As part of the Radical Americana initiative, Winterthur offers an experience to inform or inspire your own creative process, provide respite and opportunity to observe the natural world, and encourage historical research that enhances contemporary meaning of current work.

This is a four-day, three-night Creative Residency that:

- Includes specialized tours of the 175-room former home and museum created by Henry Francis du Pont;
- Opportunity to study select collection objects;
- Support of Winterthur Library and research staff, and connection with conservation, curatorial, and interpretation staff and graduate students;
- Access to Winterthur Library's vast rare book, manuscript, and circulating collections;
- Use of an inviting and comfortable office space for visiting researchers in our creative and intellectual community;
- Accommodation in the Visiting Scholars Residence and immersion in the 1,000 acre naturalistic garden, access to walking trails and historic architecture, and inclusion in public programming during your stay;
- Use of private multipurpose space for creating, writing, or meeting.

The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library will act as an research institution for Radical Americana!

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