In the summer of 1969, on New York City’s Christopher Street, an uprising broke out at the Stonewall Inn. Fred W. McDarrah, the resident photographer for the Village Voice, was one of the first photographers to make it to the scene, and the images he took there and at subsequent protests and marches immortalized the beginning of the gay rights movement. In addition to photographing some of the most pivotal moments in American history, McDarrah’s pictures capture the struggles and joys of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers leading the way towards liberation.

The MUUS Collection is a body of preeminent American photography archives that mark formative shifts in American history. With nearly half a million prints, negatives, contact sheets, and other ephemera, MUUS seeks to preserve and share these seminal works with new audiences.