Musical recordings and productions

The Tom Wilson Weinberg papers are divided into four series: I. Personal materials; II. Organizations; III. Musical recordings and productions; and IV. Oversized material.

Of particular note among the "Personal materials" is the collection of obituaries, memorial services, photographs, and correspondence of "friends and boyfriends" who died of AIDS as well as other causes, between 1986 and 2007. Weinberg has said that he and partner John Whyte lost half of their friends during the AIDS crisis and as he learned of their deaths he began putting the announcements and other remembrances into a folder. The folder grew to include evidence of the lives of over 65 individuals. Not every person included represents an AIDS death, but the majority do, and the cumulative effect is powerful. They have been arranged in chronological order by date of death, which may approximate the order in which Wilson Weinberg learned of their passing. Birth and death dates for most individuals have been included to aid in their precise identification. A full list of names can be found in the Obituaries note. There is also a folder on HIV/AIDS generally, which includes, in part, information from or about the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP), which Wilson Weinberg helped to found while living in Minneapolis. Other material in this series includes a small collection of political buttons, as well as postcards and fine art material of a personal nature to Wilson Weinberg (a larger collection of political buttons as well as t-shirts donated by Wilson Weinberg exist in separate collections in the Archives).

The series on "Organizations" includes records from several LGBT organizations with which Wilson Weinberg was associated over the years. These include material from the Attic Youth Center (where Wilson Weinberg was a board member and later board president), the Eromin Center (mainly concerning a civil action case between the City of Philadelphia and the Center), and the Gay and Lesbian Defense Committee (GLDC) (which successfully overturned a Massachusetts policy banning same sex couples from adopting), as well as correspondence with and concerning additional organizations, a special issue of Wilson Weinberg's Philadelphia Daily Gayzette called The Legislature's Gayzette, and a file on LGBT library and archival collections.

The series on "Musical recordings and productions" is the most substantial and concerns Wilson Weinberg's career as a performer, composer, recording artist, and musical producer, spanning nearly 40 years. A wide variety of material types in this series include personal correspondence, business and financial records, promotional materials, newsletters, clippings, and reviews, as well as programs, scripts, lyrics, sheet music, sound recordings, and photographs. Of note are the production and sales records of Wilson Weinberg's record company, Aboveground Records, and the license and royalty records from Broadway Play Publishing Inc. for his stage works. There is also significant documentation on the multiple performances of Wilson Weinberg's musicals Ten Percent Revue and Get Used to It! as well as several other stage works. Several files of photographs and negatives document performances and photoshoots over the years, including those for Wilson Weinberg's two solo albums, Gay Name Game and All-American Boy.

The final series of "Oversized material" is made up primarily of posters and other large-format material promoting Wilson Weinberg's performances and productions. This series is described at the item level.

The following individuals are represented in the "Obituaries" files (Box 1, Folders 4-6). See the Scope and Contents note for further information on these files.

Michael McDuffee (November 6, 1945-July 10, 1984)
John Stevens Powell (November 29,1949-September 25, 1985)
Victor Bender (July 19, 1946-February 23, 1986)
Justin Smith (June 15, 1921-February 27, 1986)
Barry S. Kohn (January 31, 1943-June 2, 1987)
Barry Laine (June 25, 1951-September 19, 1987)
Robert Erik Alderman (June 11, 1963-December 13, 1987)
Barry M. Binkowitz (August 25, 1959-December 18, 1987)
Benjamin E. Price (d. February 1, 1988, age 49)
Joey Branden (born Joseph E. Cloyd) (September 13, 1960-April 18, 1988)
DuMont Howard (July 22, 1954-November 5, 1988)
John Karl Giosi (August 7, 1953-February 3, 1989)
Stephen J. Gibson (April 7, 1955-February 12, 1989)
George Clark, III (October 16, 1959-April 18, 1989)
J. Richard Piper (January 25, 1956-January 2, 1990)
Marty Finkelstein (September 13, 1953-January 15, 1990)
Paul A. Paroski, Jr. (July 9, 1952-March 3, 1990)
Ethyl (born James Roy) Eichelberger (July 17, 1945-August 12, 1990)
Terryl Joseph (T.J.) Myers (February 7, 1960-August 28, 1990)
Vito Russo (July 11, 1946-November 7, 1990)
David P. Riel (November 11, 1962-November 21, 1990)
Lynn C. Leatham (September 6, 1938-December 4, 1990)
Robert Chesley (March 22, 1943-December 5, 1990)
Stan Hurwitz (February 28, 1944-January 5, 1991)
Joe Bracco (May 2, 1960-March 3, 1991)
Ron Hays (May 5, 1945-April 16, 1991)
Peter Hughes (May 5, 1991?)
George Lichtenwalner (August 27, 1927-May 16, 1991)
Bill Smith (d. August 1991)
Charles A. (Charlie) Willard (July 11, 1943-August 11, 1991)
Charles W. (Skip) Palmquist (July 18, 1950-August 12, 1991)
Perry Tilleraas (February 8, 1949-September 25, 1991)
Alfred S. Branam, Jr. (July 4, 1944-October 30, 1991)
Mike Riegle (May 30, 1943-January 10, 1992)
Michael Goldberger (October 21,1935-January 15, 1992)
Rusel Silkey (May 11, 1945-June 15, 1992)
Bern Boyle (November 26, 1951-June 17, 1992)
Lloyd (Buddy) Mailander (July 4, 1952-July 27, 1992)
Michael R. Haddad (d. August 28, 1992, age 40)
Dominic Bash (August 14, 1946-January 24, 1993)
Jon Urban Holmgren (April 25, 1939-March 29, 1993)
Brian Jones (September 6, 1955-May 20, 1993)
Karl Francis Hee (August 10, 1956-October 7, 1993)
Michael Callen (April 11, 1955-December 27, 1993)
Walta Barowski (October 15, 1947-February 9, 1994)
Bruce Voeller (May 12, 1934-February 13, 1994)
John Preston (December 11, 1945-April 28, 1994)
Tom Snyder (November 15, 1956-August 5, 1994)
Timothy A. Gelatt (August 12, 1955-August 22, 1994)
Lee Edward Chastain (September 24, 1962-November 24, 1994)
Jürgen (Bobby) Baumann (May 10, 1961-February 19, 1995)
Stephen J. deBaun, Jr. (November 11, 1916-March 8, 1995)
Rev. Alan Taylor (June 27, 1919-August 1, 1995)
Essex Charles Hemphill (April 16, 1957-November 4, 1995)
Thomas Patrick Smith (March 29, 1964-December 9, 1995)
Jonathan R. Lax (July 18, 1949-January 11, 1996)
David Robert Orsini (April 4, 1962-March 5, 1996)
Curtis P. Washington (November 22, 1952-August 26, 1996)
John C. Bovée (June 30, 1958-January 31, 1997)
Maurice Neville (Mo) Young (January 7, 1961-February 21, 1997)
Herschel Engebretson (August 3, 1932-July 23, 1997)
Harry F. Langhorne, Jr. (November 3, 1947-May 26, 2001)
Margaret Caroline Yeakel (January 10, 1916-April 17, 2005)
Charles Engel (February 2, 1930-October 12, 2005)
Eric Rofes (August 31, 1954-June 26, 2006)
Richard Steinman (September 29, 1925-September 17, 2006)
Max Neiburg (November 10, 1921-January 10, 2007)
Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932-February 18, 2007)
Kathleen King Whyte (September 16, 1913-October 1, 2007)