Video Interview, Patricia Finnerty, August 2, 2012
- CREW: And Kevin, I'm rolling.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- Pat, first, give me the correct spelling
- of your first and last name.
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: It's Patricia Finnerty, F-I-N-N-E-R-T-Y.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- And if I were to title you, what title would be given you?
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: Archival consultant
- for the Gay Alliance.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- So just walk me through a little bit
- the timeline here of discovering this archive
- collection from HPA and what you thought
- then should happen with them.
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: Well, my position with the Gay Alliance
- was to find a permanent repository for the HPA
- collection.
- So I thought what better repository
- that our national museum, the Smithsonian?
- So I emailed the Smithsonian, was
- able to hook up with their curator, Franklin Robinson.
- And he was very happy to have the HPA collection, especially
- to make it accessible to researchers
- and people who are interested in AIDS research.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Hold on.
- CREW: Can you ask the first question?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah.
- OK.
- CREW: And I see your paper.
- Sorry.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: It's OK.
- CREW: And I am rolling, sir.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: All right.
- Let's try that again.
- Walk me through the process of getting these HPA
- archives to the Smithsonian.
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: The process was coming up with a repository
- who I thought would be a good fit for the collection.
- And that happened to be the Smithsonian.
- And it was just simply doing a little research,
- a little digging on my part.
- And I was able to find out who the curator of the collection
- would be at the Smithsonian.
- It was Franklin Robinson.
- It was just an email and a phone call
- and seeing if it was a good fit for their collection.
- And it was.
- So it wasn't really too difficult.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Why is this so significant, particularly
- for Rochester?
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: It's significant for Rochester
- because we were the early--
- at the forefront of AIDS research.
- And how much better to put this collection at the Smithsonian
- with people who are interested in AIDS research?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Mm-hm.
- And similar question, but what do you
- think it says about Rochester and our response
- to the AIDS crisis?
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: What it says about Rochester
- is what a caring community we are
- and how we're on the forefront of really helping
- people and reaching out and realizing there's an issue
- and doing something about it.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Mm-hm.
- When you came across the HPA records,
- what was your first impressions of them?
- Why did you think these were so important?
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: Well, they were extremely well preserved.
- Not only that, but they were so complete.
- They had every record and poster and business document
- and everything, really, a researcher
- would want to know about the early HPA days.
- So I was really amazed at the breadth of the collection.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Mm-hm.
- And as the archival consultant for the JGB,
- what has been the most fun or what
- has been the most interesting?
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: The most fun has really
- been interacting with the Smithsonian and to see
- how our collection, our small part of it,
- fits into the wider scope of what
- they have at the Smithsonian.
- And to think that records from Rochester, New York
- are being housed at our National Museum is pretty exciting.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Good.
- All right.
- Thanks.
- PATRICIA FINNERTY: OK.