I absolutely loved the idea of this book but something about the actual execution was a miss for me. I could not get into it and had a hard time picking it up. It was not what I hoped for, but was certainly an interesting premise.

As an archivist, I know there’s tons of fascinating stuff housed in collections that never sees the light of day. This project puts the spotlight on several collections focusing on the LGBTQ community. The process is meticulously detailed in the beginning and then snippets of the life of the donor is given as well as how the interpreter was selected. It would have been nice to have more of the creative process of the artist and what went into their creation. I feel like only half the story is told in this book. Add to that, the ARC rife with mistakes and missing letters and it was difficult to get into these stories. Recommended if you enjoy reading about methodology rather than the individuals that should have been the highlight of the stories.

So if this book as written is a sort of thing you like, i think you will love it! But it is not what i expected so i want to write some clarification because even re-reading the description i find it confusing.

What it is not:
- the projects that people did with their archive matches
- deep dives into the archival historical queer and trans people who were researched
- anything you can sort of fall into.

What it is:
- several chapters ABOUT the project, ABOUT how the matches were made, ABOUT what the art projects created were.

If you are really into methodology, this is a great book for you! If you are hoping more for a feeling of being immersed in queer history, it is not the right choice for you!

Were I just giving feedback on the works the artists created in response to the matchmaking (of which I wish there had been many more photographs and much more detail!) or the three stellar essays by Katz, Tea, and Vargas that follow the main text, this would've been an easy five stars and I would be buying copies for so many of the archivally-inclined queers I know. I respect and admire Crichton's work in making this project, but I wish she had not talked over every participant, offering her "well I know them from" or "I liked them or didn't" thoughts about everything! It made the book read like a weirdly self-centered vanity project, too quotidian to be memoir. And yet the actual work is so important! So I'm grateful but frustrated. I will note that as a transgender reader, I did not feel taken aback by the language used because I had in mind the dates the initial invitations were made and by the time I made it to Crichton's noting of her own misgendering of one of the project artists (wtf), I was already frustrated with her voice and characterizations and unfortunately not surprised that she would center her own feelings in that.

Matchmaking in the Archive is a work that demonstrates the power of possibility within archival collections. E. G. Crichton was Artist-in-Residence for the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society from 2008 to 2014 and here, discusses several of her archival based projects with contributions of many of the collaborators.

Crichton spent time just exploring the collections at the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society. Inspired by contents of the collection Crichton developed a process and guidelines for connecting deceased individual's archival collections with contemporary artists. The artists didn't have to like their subject, but Crichton's matchmaking was of informed choices. From there they could follow the muse of creativity.

This book is divided into four sections, the first, Resurrection details Crichton's process of discovery in the archives and how that was developed into the multiple projects detailed in this book. Section 2, is the bulk of the work offering summaries of the 19 subjects and the artists paired with them. Many of those 19 shared reflections of the projects at least a decade later. Each of the 19 entries begin with a photo collage, highlighting specific objects and portraits of both the artist and archival subject. Artists created live monologue, live music, poetry, sculpture, painting, photography, short films and other works. Section three shares three essays from other contributors about their own connections with figures from the past. Part 4 is Crichton's own work and response to the matchmaking.

While not an archivist, Crichton speaks to many of the fields challenges. Here are an offering of questions considered or discussed in this book: How do we get people to engage and work with the collections? How does one curate their own life with an eye towards their memory? Who owns the past, and how should it be preserved? How have we culturally changed from the past and how are we the same?

An excellent intersectional work for those living, working or wanting to know more about the arts, archives, history or LGBTIQA+.

This book was great, informative, and unique! It truly amazes me how much love, work, and time went into this book! I only wish there were more pictures, it’s difficult to imagine what’s being described without more visuals!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley!

Matchmaking in the Archive is an interesting and well curated collection of essays about how the past informs and deepens our understanding in our present day lives. Released 10th Feb 2023 by the Rutgers University Press, it's 264 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.

This is a very well written collaborative project curated by E.G. Crichton, linking a currently active artist with a dead artist/performer whose artifacts are contained in the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society's archives and which draws parallels between how the relics of past generations relate to modern artists' creative lives and experiences.

It's easy to become overwhelmed, a little bogged down, and completely enraptured by this odd book of pairings. It's both whimsically appealing, melancholy, and quite subtly profound to understand how the author and the guest essayists tease out the common threads and present them to the reader.

Most of the artists were unfamiliar to me. There were a few familiar names, but most weren't. That didn't detract from the read (and might have actually enhanced it). There's a certain amount of voyeuristic pleasure in seeing ephemera from the past and so much history to be gleaned here.

Four stars. Valuable for readers interested in arts, ephemera, culture, LGBTQIA+ history, and allied fields.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

As someone who is queer and in library school, I expected to love this one but I found it just "okay." I found the project interesting, but I wish there had been more visual aids: more photos, illustrations, scans from the archive. I also wish we had gotten more context about queer archives in general and their limitations. I found this to be intriguing, but I can't say I would go out of my way to recommend this unless they wanted to do a similar project. My favorite part was the three essays at the end--I would recommend those on their own as strong pieces discussing queer archives and queer ancestry.

Amazing idea, not quite the execution I was hoping for.

I'll start by saying: matchmaking? queer lineage? archives?? Sounds like a dream come true—there is such a wide field to play in, asking the questions of how do we craft narratives of our own lifes? how do the people we love craft narratives for us? I'm not sure one book can grapple with these questions in a way that will leave everyone satisfied. I think *this* book fell a little short for me because of a mismatch of expectations. "19 conversations with the dead" made me think I was going to read something from each artist who was matchmade—read about their experience of Knowing someone in the archive, of creating with their presence (or absence). The introduction made me even more excited for this!

So to read about the matches and have Crichton interject, speaking about her own reasons for making the match and reflecting on the pieces that came out of the match... was a little disappointing. I think this was, as I said, because of a mismatch of expectations, but also because, as other reviewers have noted, it's hard to fully engage with the matches when there isn't as much trace (photos, links to videos, etc) to let us experience the art and ephemera that came out of the match. It seems like as-is, this book would be well-suited for someone who was able to engage with the LINEAGE project in its various iterations, rather than someone coming in cold.

Readers who have more than a passing familiarity with archive studies will probably get the most out of this text, but I think it would be a good jumping off point for someone who wonders how we remember the sort of everyday lives that don't make it into all the history books.

I adored this book. It has all my favorite things, archives, queer history, and good writing.
I love the way the author paired his people together. I wish everyone was honored in this way after their passing. I do a lot of digging through local archives here in Utah but there is no queer representation, or people of color, or the disabled, only people who had kids who stayed with the dominant religion. It is tragi. I need to step up my game. That's how I feel after reading this.
Thank you for the ARC.

I just wasn’t the right audience for this book. It’s a lot of descriptions, both visual ones like what they found in the archive and what the art looked like and descriptions of events and that doesn’t compel me to keep reading. Especially visual descriptions that I can never really picture. It also feels like this book was written for people with more prior knowledge of art and history then me

I was really interested in this title and was happy to get the arc. I was disappointed that it showed so few items in the collections. I liked the idea of matching people up but I wish we saw more from each person's life. The writing actually took away from the experience even though I understand it was meant to clarify. It was an interesting and important read but didn't feel all that much like an archive.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

I was very intruiged into this as someone who loves queer history and is an artist
The beginning section dragged on for quite a bit, leaving me wondering if it would ever get to the archives themselves. It has quite a few typos that made it hard to flow through the reading. The writing often feels a bit all over the place which made it hard for me to focus. I also wish there were many, many more photos of the objects. There so many things described that the reader never gets to see. And there photos there are I wish were more thoughtfully dispersed so I can see them while they are talked about. I think the summary is I think this collection would work better as a photography collection with short writing to help it along, rather than the alternative which is how it was presented.

I think it’s so important to take the time to honor and understand those who came before us in the LGBTQ+ community, and I was immediately intrigued by this matchmaking idea.

One challenge this book faced is that this matchmaking project happened years ago, so we are left with reading about what kind of work was produced (plus some pictures, which I appreciated). On one occasion I found myself YouTubing a video someone made, but I can’t help but feel a bit disconnected in reading about the work produced in the past. Obviously I cannot get in a time machine and go experience it in person, and many of the sections end with how the artist feels today looking back at their experience with their project and paired person, but I think it’s difficult to capture in writing the scope and impact of some of these experiences. It sometimes read a bit dry. I applaud the book for trying, and I am glad to have been exposed artists unknown to me.

The book also seemed lacking in queer POC, though that can obviously extend to a criticism of the project.

Overall, I’m glad I read this and I would love to be paired with someone’s archive.

This book was an interesting read that contained content that I genuinely haven't thought of before.

My interest was immediately caught because this author is reflecting upon YEARS of documents/photographs that they've been collecting. To have the wherewithal to stay consistent over all that time and to undertake the massive task of sorting through all of the content is remarkable and I think will be one of the main reasons people read this book.

There were more grammar imperfections then I've come across but most of the time I could use context clues to figure out what the word was meant to be. As a POC reader, I would've liked to see the author talk about the different experiences and opportunities that queer POC had during the collection period. It feels remiss to have a book that contains collections from a big time period and not reference the role race played in accessibility. Another area that made me feel uncomfortable is the verbiage that the author uses for trans individuals. I understand that this book is years in the making, but it's release date is in 2023 and to prevent harm to readers (and prevent the author from receiving backlash) the book needs to modernize with it's verbiage regarding trans people.

This book, although imperfect, is incredibly important.

Through it, E.G. Crichton, an artist, reflects on her decade-old LINEAGE project. In the project, she matched living queer artists and scholars with the archive of a deceased queer ancestor and asked the living to create a tribute to the dead. Throughout this book, she details the works that were born of the project and shares the reflections of the living ~10 years after their original tributes.

Matchmaking in the Archive paints a beautiful portrait of queer ancestry and offers readers necessary opportunities to reflect on what it means to exist as a queer person in the world today. I really appreciated the way it was almost an archive-within-an-archive, as contributors were reflecting on the work they did in the past, demonstrating that queerness remains liminal and ever-changing.

As far as my critiques, the book uses some antiquated language to describe transgender identity which may be painful for trans readers. I would’ve also appreciated a more blatant acknowledgment of the limitations of the historical archive, especially the archives of queer Black women, as well as an acknowledgement of why these archives are so difficult to find (misogynoir and racism within the early queer community that remains today). The work of Sadiya Hartman feels like a critical accompaniment to this book, so I was surprised to see that her work was not referenced.

Overall, this is a necessary text and an important jumping place for more intersectional archival research about queer ancestry!