Burt Harter
MSS 628
Originally conceived to document the life of well-known, gay New Orleans artist and curator John Burton Harter, this project expanded to include life stories from the LGBT+ community in New Orleans.
This project, made possible by a grant from the J. B. Harter Trust, was originally conceived to document the life and milieu of well-known New Orleans artist and curator John Burton Harter. In 2002 Harter was found murdered in his home in the city. The crime has never been solved, and many believe Harter was murdered because he was gay. In 2019 the oral history project was expanded to include gay and lesbian life stories to help document a critical turning point in LGBTQ history, as a growing number of people refuse to remain in the closet.
John Burton Harter Artworks
Explore the Interviews
All the interviews are available in their entirety through our online catalog. To access full audio and transcripts of the oral histories, click the links beneath the contributor names below, which will take you to each corresponding catalog page. There, scroll down to the View Online field to find links to audio and transcript files.
Contributors
Deena Bedigian
Dorothy Burandt
Stewart Butler
Katherine Guiden
Michael Guiden
George Jordan
Claudia Kheel
Richard Magill
John Sullivan
Mary White
David Lee Campbell
Larry Graham
Arthur Roger
Explore More Oral Histories
Oral History
HNOC’s oral history program preserves diverse personal narratives, fostering a richer collective memory through interviews and vignettes.
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When Praying the Gay Away Didn’t Work, He Turned to Activism
In an excerpt from his new memoir, activist Larry Bagneris recounts how his adolescent struggle to shed his homosexuality led to a political awakening and a lifelong purpose.
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Mario Dipietrantonio Collection
In the early 1980s a small group of friends came together at the Golden Lantern to form a community-minded drag group known as the Demented Women.
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