When the creators of the Oscar-nominated movie “Dallas Buyers Club” needed to better understand the AIDS crisis among the city’s gay community during the 1980s, they only had to contact the UNT Libraries.
Since August 2012, the UNT Libraries’ Special Collections department, formerly known as Archives and Rare Books, has housed a letter from Ron Woodroof, who started the Dallas Buyers Club to obtain non FDA-approved drugs for AIDS after being diagnosed with the disease; 10 Dallas Buyers Club newsletters, which were read by AIDS patients around the world who received the drugs from Woodroof; and a photograph of the medication, which is featured in the film.
They are just some of the approximately 100 items from Woodroof that were originally part of the Phil Johnson Historic Archives and Research Library at Dallas’ Resource Center, which is one of the largest LGBT community centers in the U.S. In August 2012, the Resource Center donated the archives to the UNT Libraries. The collection is now known as the Resource Center LGBT Collection and includes approximately 100,000 items.
Some of the items connected to Woodroof can now be viewed anytime online through the UNT Digital Library.
To learn more, see the full article in UNT’s InHouse: Best Picture Oscar nominee has ties to UNT.
