Mikels (Elaine) papers

Born in Los Angeles in 1921, Elaine Mikels spent her early life in California attending UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC, later receiving a Master's in Social Work. During this time, Mikels' struggles with expressing and living out her lesbian identity began as she grappled with forming healthy relationships and finding queer community amid the conformist atmosphere of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Documented by over two-hundred photographs in the collection, Mikel's political activism on a national scale began in the late 1960s and continued throughout her life as she organized demonstrations for the anti-war movement, created lesbian-feminist communities, and participated in pacifist and civil disobedience actions.