Research Catalog
Copy Berg papers
- Title
- Copy Berg papers, 1890s-1998 (bulk dates 1970-1998).
- Author
- Berg, Vernon E. (Vernon Edward), 1951-1999.
- Supplementary Content
- Finding Aid
Available Online
Details
- Description
- 67 linear feet (161 boxes).
- Summary
- The Copy Berg Papers document the military service, artistic career, family background and personal history of the artist and gay rights activist.
- Subjects
- Gay people > United States
- Artists
- Video recordings
- Sound recordings
- Sketchbooks
- Photographs
- Faxes
- Drawings
- Color transparencies
- Correspondence
- Cartoons (humorous images)
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Chaplains
- Sadomasochism
- Gay military personnel
- Gay rights
- Gay men > United States
- Gay liberation movement > United States
- Gay activists > United States
- AIDS (Disease) in art
- AIDS (Disease) and the arts
- United States > Navy > Chaplains
- United States Naval Academy Students
- Gibson, E. Lawrence, 1935-2012
- Berg, Vernon E (Vernon Edward), 1951-1999
- Bell, Charles, 1935-
- Genre/Form
- Cartoons (humorous images).
- Correspondence.
- Color transparencies.
- Drawings.
- Faxes.
- Photographs.
- Sketchbooks.
- Sound recordings.
- Video recordings.
- Access (note)
- Advance notice required. Apply at http://www.nypl.org/mssref
- Source (note)
- Berg, Vernon E., III
- Biography (note)
- Copy Berg was an artist and gay rights activist noted for his legal challenge of a United States Navy discharge issued because of his sexual orientation.
- Processing Action (note)
- Cataloged.
- Call Number
- MssCol 3444
- OCLC
- NYPW01-A39
- Author
- Berg, Vernon E. (Vernon Edward), 1951-1999.
- Title
- Copy Berg papers, 1890s-1998 (bulk dates 1970-1998).
- Access
- Advance notice required. Apply at http://www.nypl.org/mssrefOriginal postage stamps contained in Box 158 unavailable for research use for preservation reasons, as of February 2001.
- Biography
- Copy Berg was an artist and gay rights activist noted for his legal challenge of a United States Navy discharge issued because of his sexual orientation.Copy Berg was born Vernon E. Berg, III on July 10, 1951. He attended the United States Naval Academy from 1970-1974 and then served with the U. S. Navy Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In 1975 the Navy sought to release him by General Discharge on grounds of homosexuality. Berg fought a highly publicized legal battle against the Navy but lost the case and was released in 1976. He settled in New York where he studied at Pratt Institute and launched a career as an artist. Berg collaborated with E. Lawrence Gibson to produce Get Off My Ship, an illustrated account of his Navy discharge case published in 1978. He worked for several years as an assistant to photorealist painter Charles Bell. In 1986 Berg was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). His subsequent artwork explored the social response to the AIDS epidemic, sexual politics and sadomasochism. Copy Berg died of an AIDS-related illness in New York City on January 27, 1999.
- Finding Aids
- Finding aid available in repository and on the Internet.
- Connect to:
- Occupation
- Artists.
- Research Call Number
- MssCol 3444